A renewed attempt will be made today to avert a strike at An Post which threatens to disrupt mail deliveries from Friday.
Both the company and the Communications Workers' Union yesterday accepted an invitation to meet the National Implementation Body separately today for talks on the dispute.
The NIB issued the invitation after it was asked yesterday to intervene by Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey. The body comprises senior representatives of the Government, employers and trade unions.
The threatened strike by 8,500 CWU members is over the company's refusal to pay the full increases due under the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress.
The Labour Court recommended in July that the increases be paid, provided postal staff agreed to a range of work-practice changes in the company's collection and delivery service.
This was accepted by An Post but rejected by the union, which says the pay increases and work practice changes are separate issues and should not be linked. The CWU represents about nine-tenths of the company's workers.
Members of other unions in An Post are to receive the Sustaining Progress increases in full as a result of three new Labour Court recommendations issued yesterday.
The court found that members of the AHCPS, PSEU and CPSU had either implemented work-practice changes required of them or had committed to doing so.
The recommendations were accepted by the company, which said workers and pensioners concerned would receive increases that would add €4.8 million to its pay bill.
CWU members, however, will not benefit from the recommendations which were issued yesterday, and their threat of industrial action remains in place.
Union general secretary Steve Fitzpatrick said last night that in the absence of a resolution in the meantime, disruptive action would start on Monday at the latest.
Strike notice served on the company last month expires on Friday. The union has not specified what action will be taken, but an all-out strike from the outset is considered unlikely.
Actions such as a work-to-rule and bans on overtime are more likely in the early stages of the dispute.
