SIPTU is to place pickets on the Institute of Action and Research on Work and Employment (IAWRE) next week in a dispute involving eight SIPTU members who have been on strike for the past two weeks over the dismissal of a senior manager.

A spokesman for SIPTU said talks at the Labour Commission yesterday could not find the basis for a solution. He believed the pickets would disrupt the operations of the IAWRE's projects.

IAWRE, which provides places for 1,000 unemployed people in 159 pilot projects funded by the Government, has stated that SIPTU had ignored the fact that the dismissed manager had the right to take a case to either a Rights Commissioner or the Employment Appeals Tribunal, or both.

IAWRE stated that it had spent 16 months attempting to resolve the situation and had abided by all normal standards of justice in attempting to resolve the dispute.