Postal services face severe disruption from today due to the escalating row over the closure of An Post's parcels division, SDS.
Industrial action affecting the entire postal service is to be implemented by the Communications Workers' Union unless the company reinstates by mid-day today 68 SDS workers who were suspended on Monday.
It is understood the action would begin immediately and would cause widespread disruption to mail deliveries.
Behind-the-scenes attempts to head off the dispute were taking place last night, but there was no sign of a resolution. An Post said it had no intention of accepting the union's deadline for reinstating the workers, and it condemned the union's stance.
The row centres on the company's decision, announced last year, to close SDS this week with the loss of 270 jobs and to reintegrate the business into the main operations of An Post.
It began suspending workers on Monday when they refused to co-operate with moves to relocate SDS operations from its base on the Naas road to a sorting centre in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
Management and the CWU had already been scheduled to meet at the Labour Relations Commission on Monday afternoon to discuss issues around the SDS closure. The company, however, says those talks were solely about the impact of the closure on workers and that the end-of-January deadline for reintegrating SDS into An Post had never been up for discussion. The CWU claimed the company was wrong to proceed with the closure in advance of an agreement at the LRC. The CWU national executive yesterday accused the company of acting provocatively and with "reckless disregard" of the State's industrial relations machinery.
"We have a situation where just three hours before a conciliation [ LRC] hearing to deal with these issues was to be held, the company suspended 43 staff. Last night [ Monday] the company again decided to turn its back on the machinery of the State and escalated the dispute even further by suspending 25 more staff members."
An Post said it deplored "the latest round of threats" by the CWU to disrupt the wider postal service. "Aggression and belligerence by a dominant trade union is extremely damaging to and undermining of public confidence in an important public service," it said.
"It is particularly disturbing that union threats to exercise its industrial muscle are made at a time when an LRC process is still in train to resolve staff impact issues, arising from the reintegration of SDS into An Post mails services." The LRC's Mr Tom Pomphrett, was keeping informal contact with the parties yesterday with a view to finding a settlement formula.
Industrial action, however, looked increasingly likely last night. CWU members have already balloted in favour of action, which the union says it is entitled to implement without further notice.