Ten employees at the Central Bank Mint, which manufactures bank notes and coins, have held a one-day strike in a dispute over pay differentials.
The ten maintenance technicians belong to Unite and the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union.
They have warned that if the dispute is not resolved this week, there will be a two-day stoppage from Monday 18 July, escalating to an indefinite strike on Monday 25 July.
However, the Central Bank has stressed that the industrial action will not affect the availability of notes and coins in the banking and retail sectors.
While talks at the Workplace Relations Commission failed to resolve the row, sources at the Central Bank said they were hopeful that the union will agree to refer the dispute to the Labour Court.
They acknowledged that some other workers not directly involved in the dispute had refused to pass the picket, or had taken annual leave.
However, the sources stressed that so far there had been no impact on normal operations.
TEEU official Arthur Hall said that the dispute did not involve a pay claim, but rather the restoration of pay differential, which had been distorted by technicians who were recently recruited on higher pay than the usual starting rates.
"While the Bank is satisfied that today's industrial action will have no impact on the availability of cash in banks and the retail sector, it will keep the operations at Sandyford under review to avoid any on-going impact on the availability of cash as a result of industrial action," the Central Bank said in a statement.
