Some 31 of the 400 staff at Fás who signed up for promotion on condition that they would move to Birr under decentralisation plans will have their contracts reviewed following proposals from the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).
The proposal may also affect staff in other State agencies who accepted promotion on the same basis.
The LRC brokered the deal yesterday after Fás workers threatened to step up industrial action over what they saw as compulsory decentralisation.
A clause that compelled staff being promoted to agree to move to Birr by 2009 is to be dropped from future promotion contracts, and those who have signed the contracts already will have their position reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The LRC proposals reiterated the voluntary nature of the decentralisation programme.
However 20 staff who joined Fás since the initiation of the decentralisation programme and who signed contracts accepting that they would move to Birr will not have their contracts reviewed.
Both Siptu and Fás have agreed to the proposals and they will be put to a vote among Siptu members on Monday evening. If the proposals are accepted, Fás will begin negotiations on redeployment within the organisation with the 331 staff who wish to remain in Dublin.
The country's 15 other State agencies with staff represented by Siptu may also be affected by the decision.
Siptu has said it will approach its members in the other agencies to assess if they have signed promotion contracts to decentralise "under duress".
Siptu branch organiser Greg Ennis said the LRC proposals stated unambiguously that decentralisation was a voluntary programme."If it remains a voluntary programme only 56 out of 2,500 staff in the State agencies will move.
"Decentralisation simply can't work for State agencies. Under Government policy they cannot hire additional staff and there is no transferability of staff between agencies. Fás also has industry experts that will not be easily replaced and where will the staff who do not want to move go?"
A Fás spokesman said they were happy with the proposals and pleased the industrial action was over.
"We are very keen to start engaging with the staff who don't wish to go to Birr and negotiate our way around this situation. The plan is still to implement Government policy," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance said the acceptance of the LRC proposals could not be construed as a change in Government policy on decentralisation.
"We have been in negotiation under the auspices of the LRC to bring forward this plan," he said. "There are lots of issues to be resolved and we will move forward incrementally. We are not envisaging any change in the timespan at this stage. We are working toward decentralisation of Fás by Easter 2009."
