Management of Dublin's Davenport Hotel and SIPTU are attending the Labour Court due to a row over the hotel's plan to cut the pay of housekeeping staff to the new lower national minimum wage.
The minimum wage was reduced from €8.65 an hour to €7.65 on 1 February.
O'Callaghan Hotels, which own the Davenport, asked staff to sign new contracts where they would be paid €7.80 per hour - just above the new lower rate.
Around 40 of the mainly migrant staff agreed to sign the new contracts.
However, when five of them said they could not afford to do so, they were told they could lose their jobs. They have been on strike for the last week.
SIPTU official Pat Ward said he was confident the Labour Court would award the five workers their just entitlements.
He said their contracts clearly stipulated that they were entitled to €8.65 an hour.
In addition, he said the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had given a commitment that workers would retain their existing entitlements, and had nothing to fear from the introduction of the lower minimum wage.
He said this case was important not just for the five workers of the Davenport Hotel, but for other low paid workers being treated in a similar fashion the length and breadth of the country.
Representatives of O'Callaghan Hotels declined to comment as they arrived at the Labour Court. They also objected to being photographed.
