Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) aimed at resolving a pensions dispute involving school secretaries and caretakers have broken down.
The negotiations ended this evening without agreement, and the workers' trade union, Fórsa, said it wants the matter to be referred to the Labour Court.
The dispute saw more than 2,600 school secretaries and caretakers, who are members of Fórsa, engage in strike action for more than a week at the start of the school year impacting around 2,000 schools.
Fórsa withdrew the strike action after an agreement was reached to engage in a process to resolve the dispute.
A key element of the proposals was a Government commitment to negotiate pension entitlements for school secretaries and caretakers that are comparable with teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs).
Fórsa's Head of Education Andy Pike said they cannot rule out further industrial action if they are not able to achieve a satisfactory outcome for their members.
"Our members have been extremely patient," Mr Pike said.
"We've engaged in good faith and it is disappointing that the Department of Education has not put forward proposals that, in our view, are comparable with the pension benefits enjoyed by teachers and SNAs who work in the same schools as secretaries and caretakers," he added.
Under the agreement to end the strike, both sides committed to having outstanding matters following the WRC talks referred to the Labour Court.
The Department of Education has been contacted for comment.
