Management at Eircom and unions have ended their meeting after just one hour of discussions on resolving a dispute over a 2% pay increase.
In a statement after the meeting, Eircom said it had presented the union with proposals for the settlement of the dispute.
But, according to Eircom, the union said it would only discuss the proposals with the company if it received a guaranteed and unqualified payment date for the 2% increase.
Eircom said it will pay the 2% increase backdated to 1 May and will pay the phase 3 (2.5%) and phase 4 (2.5%) increases outlined in Towards 2016.
But the company said the increases must be accompanied by 'documented understandings at enterprise level'.
According to Eircom, the unions did not to put forward any proposals of their own and the meeting ended.
Members of the Communications Workers Union have already voted in favour of strike action by over 97%.
The union's national executive yesterday agreed in principle to serve strike notice on Eircom, but said it would first await the outcome of today's meeting.
Eircom's Head of Human Resources Tony Olthof said he was disappointed, and said that the company remained committed to resolving the dispute. He also said that the company had contingency plans in place.
Earlier, the Deputy Secretary of the CWU Terry Delaney said he expected to serve strike notice within the next few days. He said that discussions would take place on how the industrial action would take place.
If the strike goes ahead it will be the first at the company since 1978 and would cause significant disruption to phone and internet users.
