The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has granted an all out picket to employees, mostly pilots, at Irish Helicopters, who face redundancy because one of the company's main contracts has been lost to a British competitor.
The contract to service the Marathon oil rigs off Kinsale has gone to Bond Helicopters.
Under EU law companies winning contracts are obliged to take on staff from the previous contract holder. However, Bond has said it does not regard the 1980 EU Transfer of Undertakings regulations as applying in this case.
The unions have agreed to defer strike action for two weeks in order to allow further discussions to take place with Bond.