Members of the Fórsa trade union working in local authorities have begun industrial action today.
The union has accused local authority management of refusing to engage meaningfully on the establishment of a job evaluation scheme for workers.
Job evaluation assesses if a job's grade is properly matched to its duties and responsibilities.
The industrial action sees an indefinite ban on non-statutory political representations from TDs, senators and councillors.
This means that local government workers will not respond to routine queries and requests for information from politicians.
Fórsa has said that it will announce further action, up to and including strike action, in due course.
"Management representatives utterly failed to engage meaningfully in resolving this dispute, despite its commitment to do so in a joint referral to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)," said Fórsa national secretary Richy Carrothers.
"There was no meaningful or constructive engagement from the employer side at conciliation hearings in July. Consequently, negotiations broke down," Mr Carrothers said.
Fórsa represents more than 12,000 local government and services workers including clerical, administrative, management, technical and professional staff.
The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) said it has consistently advised Fórsa that this issue is broader than the local authority sector and should be dealt with at central level on a public sector wide basis.
"Following the WRC engagement, it was open to Fórsa to refer the matter to the Labour Court, instead they have chosen to commence industrial action, contrary to the provisions of the public sector pay agreement Building Momentum," a spokesperson for the LGMA said.
"Should Fórsa wish to follow the established processes within the State's industrial relations procedure, the LGMA, on behalf of local authority management, will engage with same," the spokesperson added.
