THE 30 Royal Dublin Hotel workers who have been on strike for 11 weeks are expected to reject a Labour Court return to work formula this afternoon.
The hotel management is understood to have agreed, reluctantly, to accept the proposals, including pay rises under national agreements which will add 10 per cent to wage costs this year.
However, the strikers are unimpressed. Many of them are among the lowest paid staff and say they are not much worse off financially on the picket line than they would be working.
The strike has also given rise to an investigation by the Department of Social Welfare into allegations by strikers that some employees are drawing the dole while working.
Management says it has co operated fully with the investigation. Three full time workers found signing on while working, had been dismissed.
Some employees signing on are doing so legitimately because they are only working a couple of days a week, according to management. Meanwhile the departmental investigation continues.
One individual who admits to signing on says he was victimised because he was supporting the strike. Thirty of the hotel's staff of 127 are on strike.
The dispute has been as acrimonious as it has been long. The Labour Court is proposing that the strikers return to work while it informally assesses pay rates in comparable Dublin hotels "in a climate of industrial peace".
In the meantime, the court says the company should pay a 3 per cent productivity rise which is due under national pay agreements to all staff, whether strikers or not, back dated to July 1st. A further 1 per cent rise should be paid, back dated to October 1st.
Every employee should receive a £200 lump sum to compensate them for "difficulties inherent in this dispute", the court says. Cases of strikers dismissed during the dispute should be referred to a Rights Commissioner for adjudication.