The 5,000-strong Communications Workers Union at Eircom has designated Thursday 19 July as the day when industrial action against the company will commence.
This is despite the fact that talks with the Labour Relations Commission are set to take place this coming Monday.
On Tuesday, the CWU, the largest union in Eircom, voted to take the strike action over a 2pc pay claim due to have been introduced two months ago. Some 84pc of CWU members at Eircom voted, with 96.7pc voting in favour of the proposed strike action.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Eircom said the company was confident that the differences between the unions and the company could be resolved before strike action might commence.
In a statement last night Eircom dismissed the “off and on again” decisions the union is making in terms of agreeing to attend the LRC talks but at the same time serving the company with strike notice.
“The company is bemused with the unions’ ‘off and on again’ decisions today to proceed with notification of industrial action, due to start 12:01 am Thursday, 19 July,” Eircom said last night.
“The decision to proceed is a blatant disregard of the unions obligations under the National Towards 2016 Agreement, which they committed to last November,” the company added.
By John Kennedy
