Intensive efforts were being made yesterday by the Labour Relations Commission to find a formula to get talks started in the postal dispute. The stalemate in the dispute continued, however, and no discussions are planned for the weekend.
Postal services in Dublin and surrounding counties have been severely disrupted for almost a week, since An Post began suspending staff at its Dublin Mail Centre in Clondalkin last weekend.
More than 500 staff at the mail centre have been removed from the payroll for refusing to carry out management instructions.
The Communications Workers' Union claims the company attempted to arbitrarily impose new sorting arrangements at the centre.
These would have had serious implications for staff at delivery offices who normally do this work, the union says. An Post says the staff were being asked to do normal duties.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, continued to resist calls for him to become directly involved in the dispute. Labour's communications spokesman, Mr Tommy Broughan, said the Minister could not continue to "wash his hands of the situation".
Mr Ahern, however, was understood to be monitoring developments and to be keeping in touch with the LRC on the matter.
He cancelled a visit to India on Wednesday, where he was to be the keynote speaker at an EU-India communications conference, because of the dispute, it was learned yesterday.
The Minister had been due to remain in India for the remainder of this week. A source said he had remained at home to keep in close contact with developments in the dispute.
What the company described as a "trickle" of mail was continuing to be delivered in the affected areas.
A spokesman emphasised, however, that mail should not be posted to any of the areas concerned as the Dublin Mail Centre had all but ceased to function.
About 60 per cent of the State's mail is processed at the centre.
The CWU will consider the situation again at a meeting of its postal executive committee on Monday, but it is understood it has no immediate plans to escalate the row by implementing a strike.
The union's full executive council is also meeting on Monday and will receive a report from its national officer responsible for An Post, Mr Seán McDonagh.
He said yesterday the union continued to be available for talks with management. "The sooner they begin the better for all concerned."
The company, however, is understood to be resisting the union's demand that the suspended staff be reinstated before talks begin.
The Labour Relations Commission's efforts were understood to be focusing on this issue.