The trade union Impact has called for an urgent review of the Government's plan to decentralise the jobs of more than 10,000 civil and public servants to 58 locations throughout the State.
In a letter to Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen today, Impact said it was calling for the review in the light of last week's decision by the Labour Court preventing State agencies from linking promotions to an applicant's willingness to move out of Dublin.
Louise O'Donnell, Impact
Impact said it represents about 1,200 civil servants whose posts are earmarked for decentralisation.
In the letter, Impact national secretary Louise O'Donnell said that a review of decentralisation would allow "breathing space to learn from the process to date and to shape the programme" for the future.
"The recent Labour Court ruling in the FÁS case applies equally to Impact's professional and technical civil servants as it does to its members in the state bodies. There are unique and, in some instances, insurmountable problems in relation to the current decentralisation programme for these staff," she said.
Ms O'Donnell said the Impact professional and technical staff in the Civil Service do not have access to interdepartmental competition nor to "any form of promotion outside of their existing stream".
"In the majority of cases, if their current posts are decentralised not only will they not have access to promotion but there will not be any jobs in Dublin within their current profession."
The union called on Mr Cowen to examine each area earmarked for transfer, in order to establish if there is a good business case for the move and to determine if there is a critical mass of applications for those posts by applicants with the relevant skills.
"Where there is not a critical mass of appropriate applications then the areas should be dropped from the current decentralisaton programme," Ms O'Donnell said.
The plan to move more than 10,000 civil and public servants out of the capital was a surprise announcement by then minister for finance Charlie McCreevy in his Budget speech in December 2003.
It instantly met with resistance from a number of civil and public servants' representative bodies, who claimed the plan was ill-thought out and that it would result in the loss of "corporate memory", or certain important skills, in the departments and agencies affected.
Eight Departments and the Office of Public Works are due to move their headquarters from Dublin to provincial locations, leaving seven Departments with their headquarters in the capital.
In a statement last week, Mr Cowen insisted the Government will continue to move ahead with decentralisation and would ensure that "no public servant is obliged to accept decentralisation against their wishes and that promotion opportunities remain available".
He said he had asked his department to engage with the unions representing staff in the State agencies generally to establish how progress can be made in relation to the relevant aspects of the recent Labour Court recommendation.
Mr Cowen said about 40 per cent of all the civil service posts due to relocate have already been filled and about 2,000 of these will have moved to their new locations by the end of this year.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin will tomorrow open new offices for his Department in Carlow. This is the first phase of the decentralisation of his Department and it includes staff of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) and one section of the Companies Registration Office (CRO).