ABOUT 250 managers in An Post will receive an arbitration award worth about £750,000, or an average of £3,000 a head, as compensation for the loss of various allowances.
As a result, the Communications Managers' Union, which represents the staff concerned has called off tomorrow's strike.
The award is likely to be the last of its kind under the old conciliation and arbitration system An Post inherited from the Civil Service.
It was made last June by Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, when he was acting as temporary arbitrator on disputes in An Post. It arose out of a claim dating back to 1990.
However, the decision took the company by surprise and, for the first time in the history of the arbitration scheme, it refused to pay. The CMU served strike notice for last Thursday but agreed to a deferment when the Labour Relations Commission intervened.
The LRC issued its findings yesterday, and both sides have accepted them. The commission says the award should be paid in full, but on a phased basis. About 250 of the CMU's 450 members in An Post will receive amounts varying from a few hundred pounds to about £7,000 in a series of lump sums paid between July 1996 and November 1997.