The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, is expected to warn trade unions against the dangers to the economy of breaching national pay agreements when she presents the annual reports of the Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission later today.
The chairman of the court, Mr Finbarr Flood, and the LRC chief executive, Mr Kieran Mulvey, are also expected to voice concern at the increasing trend among trade unionists to resort to industrial action.
The publication of the two reports comes amid major pay upheavals in the public sector.
Nurses and gardai have rejected substantial awards in the past week, and a DART strike on Monday was only narrowly averted by LRC intervention.
However, the threat of widespread disruption of public transport services has increased, with 900 SIPTU drivers in Dublin Bus voting by eight to one for strike action and over 300 level-crossing keepers with Iarnrod Eireann rejecting a Labour Court recommendation in the past two days.
Dublin Bus was served with strike notice by SIPTU yesterday.
The National Bus and Rail Workers' Union has already done so in pursuit of a 20 per cent pay claim to bring basic pay up to £330 a week. The company has rejected the claim on the grounds that it is outside the terms of Partnership 2000 and is unsustainable on financial grounds.
When the claim was initially served by the NBRU it was felt it did not present a major challenge to pay policy, as the union is outside the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. However, with SIPTU now seeking similar increases it is expected that the Government will raise the dispute with the ICTU.
The dispute involving level-crossing keepers, 75 per cent of whom are women, is also expected to escalate, following their rejection of a Labour Court recommendation that a joint union management working party be set up to review pay and conditions. They are now voting for strike action, and notice is likely to be served at the end of the month.
SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Noel Dowling, described the working conditions of gate-keepers as "third world" yesterday. He said that many of the 148 resident gate-keepers lived in appalling accommodation. He denied that SIPTU was intent on breaking national agreements and said company employees should not be made scapegoats for years of underinvestment by CIE's main shareholder, the Government.
"The Celtic Tiger is here and people are only asking when they get their share," he said.
"CIE can't be seen in isolation from workers' expectations generally, which are growing by the day. There is an obvious need for a process in the transport sector to take a serious look at all the issues.
"Because the company was not given adequate funding, there has always been a tendency for it to rely on allowances and overtime. Now the chickens are coming home to roost."
Level-crossing gate-keepers, earn between £1.25 and £2.85 an hour, and resident keepers work 24 hours a day. They are seeking £4.40 an hour and a maximum 12-hour day. The company estimates the cost of conceding the demand at £700,000.