Talks start to avert embassy strike
Staff at the British Embassy in Dublin will meet today to decide whether to proceed with a second one-day strike in a row over job cuts.
Planned for today, trade union Unite, which represents workers, postponed the industrial action for 24 hours to allow for informal talks to resolve the dispute.
Last week more than 40 workers, all members of Unite, voted unanimously to take industrial action for the second time.
The row broke out after three Irish workers were written to and told they faced being made redundant.
Embassy bosses said the cuts were compulsory.
More than 40 members of staff from the Dublin embassy, including trade and industry, passport section workers, administration and household staff joined the first one-day strike on Thursday February 7.
The union insists the decision on compulsory redundancies, which is understood to have originated in London, falls outside agreed procedures drawn up to deal with disputes since 2003.
