Labour Relations Commission talks aimed at finding a resoloution to the ongoing dispute by workers at the Brinks Allied security company at Coolock in Dublin have broken down this evening and a ballot on full scale strike action will now take place on Wednesday.
SIPTU Security Service Branch Secretary Mr Kevin McMahon accused the company of not being willing to "engage in a search for a solution". He said management had instead "introduced a whole range of new issues relating to working conditions and operational procedures".
He said SIPTU had offered to recommend a "compromise solution" which would have led to a resumption of cash in transit operations and training and said the union had committed itself to "working with the company on a formula under which the vehicles could be operated while a health and safety intervention took place".
"However the company wanted local negotiations on a much broader range of issues that was impractical from a union perspective in the present situation," he said adding that the union felt it had "no option but to ballot our members at Brinks on Wednesday".
The row, which workers insist is currently a health and safety issue rather than an industrial dispute, centres on the introduction of new security vans and work practices.
On Friday, SIPTU said the 80 employees now consider themselves to be in a "lock-out" situation as they had expressed willingness to carry out their normal duties, other than the use of the new vans, but the company refused to allow them do so.
SIPTU representatives are to meet tomorrow to consider industrial action throughout the cash transportation industry.
A SIPTU spokesman said the union's members want new security measures put in place throughout the sector.
There are concerns that any such action could affect availability of money in banks and ATM machines around the country. Many non-branch ATMs on the east coast have already run out of cash because of the Brinks dispute, but the banking industry insists most branches have successfully managed to replenish their cash stocks.
SIPTU will now ballot Brinks Allied members on industrial action over what it says is a unilateral action by the company to introduce new security vehicles and procedures.
The new practices include an instruction to security van operatives that the van should be driven away from the scene of a robbery, even if a crew member remains at the scene.
