An Post services are being disrupted for a fourth day in a row due to the ongoing sub-contract workers strike at An Post mail centres.
The 36 staff who maintain the automated postal processing machinery in mail centres are employed by contractor IO Systems, but are retained by An Post to maintain machinery at the centres in Dublin, Cork, Portlaoise and Athlone.
An Post has again appealed to people not to mail any letters or parcels due to the disruptions, however post offices are open this morning and post that is already in the system will be delivered.
Businesses and agencies, including the Health Service Executive, Revenue and the Motor Tax Office, are currently putting contingency plans in place.
Due to the strike, postal unions fear that some of the 9,500 workers at An Post could be put on protective notice as there is currently no post to process, however they say that they will also ballot for industrial action if this happens.
Unions have also questioned the company’s decision to suspend all postal services when it says parcels, Passport Express, registered mail and periodicals are all sorted manually by staff and it would co-operate with extending the manual sorting service to accommodate for extra post during the strike.
The Communications Workers’ Union said its members in IO Systems had taken industrial action due to a decision by the company to arbitrarily cut pay and change their attendance patterns. They stated that this was done in circumstances where there is an agreement arriving from a Labour Court binding determination which sets the rate of pay and the attendance pattern.
IO Systems Managing Director Fergal Lynam said workplace contract changes were necessary due to decreases in volumes at An Post and the fact that weekend working was no longer required in the mailing centres.
Minister for Communications Alex White has taken a back seat in the ongoing dispute insisting that the parties in the dispute come together and seek to resolve their differences, stating that there is plenty of support and professional back-up in third party mechanisms to aid in resolving the issues at hand.
Meanwhile the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association Chief Executive Mark Fielding stated that: “We would be calling on Minister White to get out from wherever he’s been hiding and bang these heads together because the end of this is there’s going to be a negotiated settlement and why not just go and refer it for binding decision and that will put an end to all of this posturing and threatening this and threatening that.”
He also said that 90% of the 12.5 million items of post generated each week is from business to business or business to consumer and his members were now being forced to seek alternative options.