The Executive Council of the ICTU has called for a two-week moratorium on legal proceedings against bin charge protestors in light of the current potential risk that people could be injured.
Congress also calls on opponents of bin charges to stop obstructing local authority workers, and to confine themselves to activities which are within the law.
In a statement this evening , Congress reaffirmed its strong concerns about the inadequacy of funding for local services, and described proposals for local charges as regressive.
However, the executive council said it disagreed with the tactics of bin protestors.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union has welcomed the Congress initiative.
The Acting General Secretary of the TEEU Eamon Devoy said that the position adopted by Congress today reflected the concerns raised by his members.
No more blockades this week
Anti-waste charge campaigners say they will not organise any further blockades of bin depots this week.
But they say the ability of anti-bin tax campaigners and binworkers to cause massive disruption to services will be displayed again if the councils' policy of non-collection and jailings does not stop.
Dublin City Council is in negotiations with unions representing bin men who say they will put their health and safety at risk by driving their lorries past pickets.
It also confirmed that two of those jailed for defying High Court orders to desist from protesting about refuse charges have been given waivers by the council and therefore do not pay any bin charges.
PDs slam Labour over bin protests
The Chairman of the Progressive Democrats parliamentary party has strongly criticised the Labour Party for what he called its 'weak-kneed attitude' to the bin charge protests.
Deputy Noel Grealish told the Dáil this evening that people outside Dublin would be furious if the government caved in to what he called a 'dirty protest'.
Deputy Grealish claimed that Labour was afraid of what might happen in the local elections, which was why they wanted the Government to back down.
He said a small group of people in Dublin wanted to be subsidised by the rest of the country when they refused to pay and were stopping other people's bins being collected.
Deputy Grealish was speaking in a debate on a private members motion put forward by Independent members of the Technical Group, which supports the position taken by Joe Higgins.
Two women in court over bin protest
Two women have appeared before the District Court charged with public order offences in connection with anti-waste charge protests at Ballymount Avenue in Dublin this afternoon.
Jessica Jones, 25, from Terenure Road East, and Sylvia Hume, a grandmother from Alderwood Close, Springfield Estate in Tallaght, pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to comply with an instruction from gardai and interfering with the free movement of traffic.
Both women were remanded on their own bail of €100 to appear again at Dublin District Court on 22 October.
A condition of their bail was an undertaking not to obstruct bin collections in Dublin city and county.
Waste collection resumed in south Dublin and Fingal County Council's areas this afternoon.
But almost 40,000 households in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin City Council's areas have not had their rubbish collected today.
