Bin collections in Dublin are facing further disruption next week in a dispute unconnected to the recent anti-bin charge controversy.
SIPTU has served strike notice on Dublin City Council in what it says is a dispute in support of colleagues in the recycling firm Oxigen Environmental.
The union said more than 200 workers in the council's cleansing section had voted "overwhelmingly" to take industrial action in support of colleagues at Oxigen who are in dispute over employment rights.
SIPTU said Oxigen workers had been in dispute with management since October 14th over their right to be represented by a trade union and over their terms and conditions of employment.
Some 56 people employed by Oxigen to carry out green bin collections and other duties have been picketing three depots for the past three weeks.
It claimed many of them had been "harrassed" by management once it was known they had joined the union. The allegation has been rejected by Oxigen.
Mr Paul Smyth, SIPTU branch secretary, said the union has served a week's notice on Dublin City Council.
"The initial action will take the form of a half day's work stoppage on the morning of Thursday November 6th, during which there will be no bin collection," he said.
Mr Smyth said SIPTU had requested meetings with management to discuss a variety of issues over the past three years, but that the company had "continually refused to respond to our request".
"The workers want professional trade union representation, an end to bullying and harrassment, the implementation of the EU Working Time Directive and proper sick pay and pension schemes."
Mr Smyth said Oxigen management had refused to allow the matter to go before the Labour Relations Commission and instead offered €1,000 to each employee in back money and talked of bonuses and wage increases "as soon as the union served strike notice".
Mr Smyth said the local authorities, including Dublin City Council, could not shirk their responsibilities on the basis that Oxigen was a private firm. The green bin service had been sub-contracted out to Oxigen under a Public Private Partnership arrangement, he said.
"What we are saying to them is: 'You have a role to play and you cannot wash your hands of this.'"
Workers will protest outside Dublin City Council's headquarters at Wood Quay in Dublin on November 6th.
A spokesman for Oxigen said the company did not know what was going on in terms of the strike notice served today.He said there was "no question" of workers not being allowed to join a trade union. However, asked whether the company was conceding their right to join a union, but refusing to allow that union negotiate for them, the spokesman agreed this was the case.
He said a small number of the overall staff were members of a union and were seeking to have that union negotiate for them. Oxigen services had not been affected by the dispute, he said.
The spokesman said the allegations of bullying and harrassment made by SIPTU were "absolute nonsense". "There is no question of bullying or harrassment in any shape or form," he said.
Dublin City Council is expected to issue a statement this evening.