Professional staff in two State agencies face "relocation or resignation" under the Government's decentralisation programme, a union conference is to be told today.
Mr Jerry Shanahan, deputy national secretary of civil service union Amicus, says there is no voluntary option on decentralisation for the union's members in Enterprise Ireland and the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).
The Government has promised that all relocations under its plan to move 10,300 civil and public servants from Dublin will be implemented on a voluntary basis.
Both Enterprise Ireland and the NSAI are to be moved in their entirety to Shannon, Co Clare, and Arklow, Co Wicklow respectively. Amicus represents professional and technical staff in both organisations.
Mr Shanahan will tell a sectoral conference of the union in Dublin today that none of its members in either agency have indicated that they will be volunteering for relocation under the proposed plan.
"In small agencies like the NSAI, there is much less flexibility than in a large Government department with several thousand employees," he is to tell delegates.
The principle of voluntary relocation, Mr Shanahan claims, has been forgotten by the Government in relation to both Enterprise Ireland and the NSAI.
"Where is the voluntary option for our members in these agencies? There is none. It seems the only option they will face will be relocation or resignation."
The conference, of Amicus's Government departments and State agencies sector, is to discuss a motion rejecting the Government's decentralisation programme.
