NINETY staff at IDA Ireland are to strike for four hours tomorrow the agency's first strike after pay talks under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work broke down.
Last night the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, appealed to staff to return to the negotiating table and if they could not make any further progress in direct talks, they should to use avail of the services of the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court, he said.
The dispute is over a major pay anomaly between staff in IDA Ireland and those in Forfas, who do similar work but earn up to 40 per cent more, according to their union representative, Ms Patricia King of SIPTU.
The cost of ending the anomaly would be £1 million a year and would breach the PCW limits.