SIPTU organisers are hopeful that the result of a ballot of union members who are State development agency employees will be in favour of strike action. The results will be made known on Monday. The trade union stated yesterday that there had been a persistent refusal by the Government to deal with pay differences of up to 40 per cent between staff doing the same work at Forfas, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Differences over grading structures have arisen out of the formation of Forfas, the co-ordination body for industrial development, in 1994 and Enterprise Ireland, the new agency for indigenous company development, last July. Ms Patricia King, SIPTU branch secretary, said the level of anger made her hopeful of a majority decision in favour of action among the 750 members.

She said the talks process had broken down after Department of Finance officials indicated on December 22nd that no proposals to address the issues would be made. "The essence of the current problems for Forfas staff who now people all of these agencies is that there are now three grading structures running in tandem, with people doing similar jobs and similar work but receiving very different rates of pay under differing work conditions," she said. The outcome of the ballot is due to be discussed at a SIPTU general meeting next Friday. No comment was available from the Department of Finance last night.