PICKETS are to be placed on the GPO in Dublin this morning by 500 clerical workers in An Post's financial services section, who are protesting at an outside appointment to a secretarial position. Services to the public will not be affected unless the dispute is protracted.

Talks are to resume between An Post and the Civil and Public Services Union this morning. There were several hours of talks yesterday before strike notice expired at 5 p.m.

Secretarial positions within An Post have traditionally been regarded as promotional outlets. However, on this occasion the company decided, after advertising two secretarial positions internally, that only one suitable candidate had emerged. It therefore recruited the second secretary externally.

CPSU members were angered even more when the new post was re-advertised outside the company at a salary of £100 a week more. The clerical staff have been on a work to rule for two weeks and by yesterday 270 of them had been removed from the payroll for refusing to carry out instructions. Settlement terms agreed last week were rejected by the clerical workers and the union decided to escalate its action.