A dispute has arisen between Siptu and the Department of the Environment over a picket placed at the Custom House this morning
The picket was held in support of women cleaners in what Siptu says is a contractor's refusal to honour job commitments.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said staff were locked out of the building by the union until 10am, preventing people from going to work and disrupting the work of the Department.
He said the union had put locks and chains on the gate while they held their picket.
“This dispute does not directly involve the Department. We are a third party in this. Nevertheless we have done everything in our power to resolve it,” he said.
He added that Department "had endeavoured at all times" to facilitate the parties in dispute to come to a resolution, and still remains available to assist the parties.
But a spokesman for Siptu told The Irish Timesthe "doors to the building had been locked from the inside".
"It wasn't our intention to stop people going to work. We were picketing outside to highlight the plight of these women," he said. He said the picket came to an end at 9am.
The union organised the action this morning in protest at the "continued refusal" of the company that secured the new cleaning contract for the building to honour commitments to staff.
According to the union, Schorman Cleaning Services, which secured the contract, had indicated it would be honouring the transfer of undertakings regulations, which would ensure continuity of employment for the workers, but told staff that it was reducing their daily shift from four to "2.57" hours a day.
Siptu says that when this was queried, the company "reneged on the commitment to employ them by letters given to each employee as they arrived for work on June 23rd just a week before they expected to start working for their new employer".
"The ten Siptu cleaners who have lost of their jobs as a result are hard working women ranging in age from their early forties to early sixties and in some cases are the main breadwinners for their families. They have been on the picket lines for almost two weeks," a statement from Siptu said this morning.
A spokeswoman for Schorman Cleaning Services refused to comment on the matter.
The union said it was concerned that Schorman may want to get rid of them to employ people at less than the agreed minimum rates provided by the Employment Rights Order for the industry.
Speaking this morning, Siptu branch organiser Karen Smollen said: “Women, some of whom are reaching the end of their working lives, should not have to go on strike to defend their basic rights. It is particularly shameful that they must do so when the client of the cleaning contractor is a Government department.