FIELD sales staff at Irish Life have deferred an emergency general meeting for balloting for renewed industrial action, pending meetings likely to be held early next week to discuss the suspension of seven staff members.

A MSF branch meeting held in Portlaoise yesterday had a lengthy debate on how to respond to the suspension of the seven staff on hill pay. The seven are under investigation in relation to actions they are alleged to have carried out during the recent dispute. The 320 MSF sales staff returned to work when a binding agreement was issued by the Employer Labour Conference (ELC).

The company met SIPTU representatives yesterday to discuss the return to work of the 34 field sales staff represented by that union. These staff wish to return to work this Monday, but say the ELC decision does not apply to them as they were not part of the ELC process.

The union wants management to negotiate on the conditions for the return to work of the SIPTU staff. Management wants the SIPTU workers to return to work under the same terms as those which apply to their MSF colleagues.

It remains unclear how this difficulty is to be overcome. A spokesman for the company was not available for comment.