Promotional prospects at Enterprise Ireland and the Combat Poverty Agency are being linked to workers' willingness to relocate under the Government's decentralisation plan, Siptu claimed today.
Branch organiser Owen Reidy said he expected the industrial action taking place at Fás over the issue, to spread to other State and related agencies.
Mr Reidy said similar conditions being attached to Fás workers' terms of employment have emerged at Enterprise Ireland and the Combat Poverty Agency.
He said a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that positions arising from a voluntary early retirement scheme at Enterprise Ireland are contingent on a commitment to relocate to Shannon.
A Department of Finance memo regarding the signing of leases on new two premises for the agency at East Point in Dublin stated the contracts - due to be signed within weeks - must make provision for decentralisation.
Mr Reidy said the agency was seeking early opt-out clauses in the lease in an attempt to "lock staff into decentralising to Shannon". The new premises are intended to consolidate workers currently based at four locations around Dublin.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs is also insisting that future contracts include a clause making relocation to Monaghan a condition of employment, Mr Reidy added.
He said decentralisation "is now in disarray right across the State agency sector". He warned that although the union would continue to use labour relations mechanisms, it would also consider industrial action.
He also rejected criticism of trade unions from the Minister of State at the Department of Finance Tom Parlon, who has responsibility for body co-ordinating decentralisation.
Mr Parlon, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), said rivalries between trade unions over posts promotions are holding up the plans.
Mr Reidy said independent observers were critical of the plan for the same reasons as the unions. "There was no planning, no consultation with the stakeholders, and no foresight. It was a gimmick, a rabbit pulled out of a hat on Budget day.
"Now we [unions] have to deal with it and for whatever reason, the Government don't seem to able to address the problems we've raised," Mr Reidy told ireland.com.
He suggested the focus should be on civil servants where there is greater interest in decentralisation but insisted the plan was unsuitable for State agencies.
Siptu has organised a protest against decentralisation next week outside the OPW headquarters that is due to be attended by members in semi-State agencies represented by the union.