The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has rejected claims that its officers have acted contrary to its own policy by calling for a Yes vote in the referendum on the Amsterdam Treaty.
The general secretary of Congress, Mr Peter Cassells, and other senior officers have called for a Yes vote in recent weeks. This followed a unanimous ICTU executive decision to back the treaty.
However, in 1995 the ICTU's biennial conference approved a motion stating that it instructed its executive to hold a special delegate conference as soon as possible after the Amsterdam Treaty was signed to decide Congress policy on it.
The motion, from the Cork Operative Butchers Society, expressed concerns about the possible implications a new treaty would have for Irish neutrality as well as the social and economic effects on Irish workers.
The proposers of the motion complained earlier this month when Congress officials began calling for a Yes vote without holding a special delegate conference. However, a reply sent by the ICTU to the proposers is understood to have rejected the complaint.
"Under the constitution of Congress, the convening of a special delegate conference is a matter for decision by the Executive Council," the letter is understood to have said. "Consequently, motions which seek to instruct the Executive Council to convene such conferences are normally ruled out of order.
"However, as happened in relation to the 1995 motion you referred to, when the sponsoring union is prepared to accept that the motion is not binding on the Executive Council and amounts to a recommendation only, the union concerned is allowed to move the motion and have it debated on that clear understanding."