A library dispute which has been a minor source of disruption for Trinity students but a source of embarrassment for Trinity staff seriously escalated yesterday.

Members of SIPTU working in the library are in dispute with the college over various issues. Among the issues are pay, with the union claiming that they haven't been compensated for productivity increases since 1994. Also in dispute is management's right to transfer staff to other departments within the library service.

Industrial action has been going on for several weeks already, affecting such aspects of the service as loans for external readers and driving of vans between libraries. A backlog of books has built up, but the measures beginning yesterday will bite much deeper. SIPTU members make up the entire staff that deal with Trinity's voluminous book depository at Santry and are now refusing to deal with books taken in there since 1994. Requests for books for lucrative interlibrary loans will also not be dealt with, and SIPTU members are also refusing to perform maintenance on photocopiers - for which there are already large queues at peak time.

With Christmas exams a dim but steadily approaching sight on the horizon, there is still little sign of the dispute being settled. Steven McFadden, Trinity's staff relations manager, says the union is being inflexible and that it needed very serious grievances to justify affecting students' education. "It is impossible to see what grievance they can have when they are getting more than the public sector equivalent."

"This can't be resolved with the kind of attitudes that are being displayed."

Jack McGinley, the SIPTU shop steward in the library, says the union regrets the necessity of action and the effect it will have on students, but that after 14 months of negotiation, it was felt necessary to escalate.

"There are other areas we could escalate on, such as weekend opening, but we have decided not to do that," McGinley said.