Union to escalate action over Fás move

The trade union Siptu yesterday said industrial action at the State training and employment agency, Fás, over the manner of the implementation of its planned decentralisation move to Co Offaly, would escalate over the coming days and weeks.

Siptu said a half-day ban put in place by Fás head-office staff yesterday on answering phones or dealing with any other forms of communication, had been successful.

The campaign of industrial action is in opposition to the agency's policy of restricting head-office promotions to those who commit to relocating to Birr, Co Offaly as part of the Government's decentralisation programme.

New recruits to the Fás head office in Baggot Street, Dublin are also required to sign up for decentralisation to Birr, which is to take place by 2009.

Greg Ennis, of Siptu, said the half-day communications ban at its Dublin head office and at the agency's call centre in Edenderry, Co Offaly yesterday had caused disruption for members of the public and was regrettable.

However he said the dispute was not of the staff's making and would persist as long as Fás continued to breach agreements.

He said further impromptu work stoppages were planned for the days and weeks ahead in locations where Fás head-office staff were based. He said these included a number of training centres.

Mr Ennis said head-office staff were located in Fás premises at Baggot Street, South Circular Road, Adelaide Road and Clyde Road in Dublin, as well as at the call centre in Edenderry and in training centres at Baldoyle, Loughlinstown and Jervis Street in Dublin as well as in Sligo.

Mr Ennis said Siptu had been asking for more than two years for details on what would happen to staff who did not want to move to Birr.

He said no answers had been forthcoming.

Only six of the agency's 400 head-office staff expressed an interest in relocating to Birr through the Government's central applications facility. However, 51 staff members have committed to the move since the policy of linking decentralisation to promotions and recruitment of staff was introduced.

Siptu took a case to the Labour Court, which found that the agency's policy of promoting only staff who were prepared to relocate was a breach of agreed industrial relations.

A Fás spokesman said it had been difficult to measure the impact of yesterday's communications ban and there had been no complaints from the public.

He said the agency hoped to engage in further dialogue with Siptu and that these talks could take place later this week or early next week.