Union claims 600 jobs are to be lost

MSF, one of the unions representing workers at Enterprise Ireland, has claimed the agency intends to offer redundancy to approximately 600 staff as part of an attempt to streamline the new organisation.

MSF says it will resist any compulsory redundancies and says the job losses will lead to a further lowering of morale at the agency which currently employs about 1,200 people.

A spokeswoman for Enterprise Ireland said while some re-structuring is due to take place, no redundancies have been sought so far in the organisation. MSF claims that 220 staff in the technology services division of the new agency have already been informed that 80 per cent of them are to be offered redundancy. Details of a redundancy package are expected to be announced in early September.

In a separate development, MSF has applied for a hearing in the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) to adjudicate on whether six senior managerial appointments made by chief executive, Mr Dan Flinter, followed agreed procedures.

MSF is in dispute over the appointments and members are currently refusing to co-operate with those appointed. The hearing is likely to take place before the end of the month, but it can take up to three months, in some cases, for such hearings to be heard. "This issue has significantly reduced morale in the organisation," said a MSF spokesman.

Enterprise Ireland says all the appointments were advertised internally and says the LRC does not have the authority to reverse them. The spokeswoman described the dispute over the appointments as "part of the normal teething problems involved in merging several different organisations".

Another issue currently under discussion is a claim by workers transferring from the Irish Trade Board that their terms and conditions have to be "harmonised" with those received by staff from Forbairt and FAS.

A spokesman for MSF, which mainly represents former Forbairt staff, says it will "be watching closely" the deal offered to the former Trade Board staff. "We don't want their claim to affect our terms and conditions," he said.

The union says it is still "lobbying" the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, to have a union representative appointed to the board of Enterprise Ireland.