The CPSU has criticised the latest federal decentralisation plan.

The Human Services department’s Sydney city office is expected to start emptying soon, with 100 staff to be relocated to Parramatta as part of an effort to spread jobs to regions and outer suburbs.

But the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says DHS staff at the Surry Hills branch are being kept in the dark about the timing and potential impact on their work and families, with just a few months until their planned move.

“This is causing anxiety and disruption for DHS and its workers while delivering nothing for regional Australia,” CPSU deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly has told Fairfax.

“If minister Michael Keenan bothered to jump on a train to Parramatta he’d soon realise it’s closer to the Sydney Harbour Bridge than it is to the city’s outermost suburbs let alone regional Australia.”

In March this year, Mr Keenan pledged to work with the union.

Ms Donnelly says the move comes amid severe job cuts at Human Services.

“The reason why there’s room for these 100 workers at DHS’s Parramatta offices is that the Turnbull government has slashed more than 5,000 permanent jobs from the department,” she said.

“Parramatta is an important DHS site and should be boosted with at least an additional 100 staff, but those should be new jobs to repair the damage caused by this government, not a forced relocation of workers from one place to another.

“At the same time as the government’s pretending that forcing workers to relocate to Parramatta is somehow a win for regional Australia, it's in the middle of closing a DHS office in the NSW town of Lightning Ridge.”

The department says it has been in close consultation with staff.

“We are seriously considering all feedback and working hard to ensure a smooth transition which we expect will be completed by the end of the year,” a DHS spokesperson said.