INDUSTRIAL action is to resume at meat plants at 4 p.m. today. The action was due to resume on Friday but was suspended to allow for talks between officials of the Department of Agriculture and representatives of the IMPACT trade union at the weekend. However, despite 11 hours of discussions yesterday - ending at 8 p.m. - "very limited progress" was made. The dispute involves 250 meat inspectors and 50 carcass classification officers, who deal with intervention beef.
The union is seeking extra staff and training for employees, who are required by the EU to operate tighter inspection controls because of irregularities in the industry uncovered by the beef tribunal.