Workers at the Gama construction company have refused to call off their five-week unofficial strike to allow talks to take place at the Labour Relations Commission.
Late last week, the LRC invited Gama unions and management to attend conciliation talks to try to find a solution to the row about alleged miscalculations by the company of pay and overtime for its staff.
However, the LRC cannot intervene where any party is engaged in unofficial industrial action.
Last week, the three unions involved in the dispute, SIPTU, UCATT and OPATSI, voted to take official industrial action.
However, the union executives must now decide whether to sanction official strike action. They must then serve at least one week's strike notice.
This morning, SIPTU construction branch secretary Eric Fleming confirmed that in the interim, the striking workers will not call off their unofficial strike to allow talks to take place.
He acknowledged that this meant that the talks process is now effectively stalled.
GAMA management confirmed last week that it was prepared to attend the LRC.
LRC Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey said he believed that the commission proposals provided the best opportunity at this stage to resolve the stated grievances of the workers concerned.
He called on them to reconsider their position to allow talks to take place as this is the only channel through which the matters in dispute between the parties can be resolved.
