The Labour Court has recommended that An Post’s 9,500 workers receive a two-phase 3.5% pay rise that will cost the company €15m a year.

Some 10,000 workers at An Post are set to get their first pay rise in eight years.

Postal services face further disarray today as An Post repeated its warning to the public not to post any letters or parcels because of a strike involving staff at a subcontractor’s company.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Right2Water, an umbrella group opposed to water charges and backed by five trade unions, has urged a spectacular and peaceful turnout for a national demonstration in Dublin on December 10.

The Labour Court has summoned Iarnród Éireann and its unions to talks on how to achieve up to €8.5m in savings.

The leader of the country’s largest communications union has forecast up to 400 jobs could go in An Post before the end of the year.

EIRCOM employees have been advised by the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) to accept a controversial company plan aimed at saving €92 million over a three-year period.

The Communications Workers’ Union is recommending its members accept the terms of Eircom's costsaving plan.

A group of trade unions joined forces today in a final bid to convince workers the Lisbon Treaty was essential for their rights.

Campaigners for the Lisbon Treaty today launched a new website which they claim detects lies about the charter.

FIVE large communities in Co Cork have been urged to fight plans to “downgrade” post offices in their areas.

INDUSTRIAL action is brewing at BT Ireland as the company refuses to recognise the right of its staff to trade union representation.

UP to 50 BT Ireland staff will stagea public protest outsidethe corporate headquarters of BT Ireland in Upper Grand Canal Street today.

EIRCOM has avoided what would have been its first strike action in 30 years after the unions representing its 6,500 workers yesterday agreed to settlement terms mediated between company and workers at the Labour Relations Commission.

EIRCOM workers yesterday served strike notice on the company, meaning thousands of homes and businesses could be without communications by as early as next Friday.

AN POST has been ordered to pay a former employee more than €70,000 compensation for preventing him applying for a job because he was over 60.

EIRCOM directors stand to make €7.8 million from the sale to Babcock & Brown.

An Post has reported an after-tax profit of €40.7m for 2005.

THE threat of a potentially catastrophic pre-Christmas strike by postal workers has been lifted following the acceptance by management of Labour Court recommendations on wage increases.

Management at the state postal company today moved to bring an end to a long-running dispute by agreeing to pay overdue wage increases to staff.

THE threat of a major postal strike in the run-up to Christmas remains a distinct possibility after talks at the Labour Court over the weekend failed to report any real progress.

AS a member of the Communications Workers’ Union I took part in a march through Killarney to the hotel where Fianna Fáil held their árd fheis recently.

The Government has put contingency plans in place to pay 800,000 welfare recipients their Christmas bonuses in case a looming postal strike goes ahead.

AN Post will become extinct “very, very quickly” if its workers do not agree to change work practices, Communications Minister Noel Dempsey has warned.

INDUSTRIAL unrest at a mail sorting centre in Cork could be one of the reasons behind delays in postal deliveries in Kerry, it emerged yesterday.

Up to 8,000 An Post workers will decide within two weeks whether to disrupt the national postal service over undelivered wage rises.

EIRCOM chief executive Phil Nolan was paid €1.2 million last year, it emerged yesterday.

AN POST’S refusal to give workers an 8.5% pay rise could threaten the social partnership model when talks on a new national pay deal resume, the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) warned yesterday.

AN independent group will today be appointed by the Labour Court to examine controversial cost-cutting plans by management at An Post.

Staff at An Post – who staged a one-day stoppage yesterday – agreed tonight to suspend further strike action ahead of talks with the Government next week.

Unions and bosses at An Post are to take part in a week of intensive discussions over the closure of the loss-making Special Delivery Service, it has emerged today.

THREE directors of An Post are to seek legal advice over the company’s decision to close its parcel and courier division, SDS, with the loss of 270 jobs.

Christmas deliveries could be under threat with unions at An Post balloting members over festive arrangements, it was confirmed.

IT’S fun for the young, but Halloween can be a nightmare for many older people.

EIRCOM chief executive Philip Nolan was paid €5.6 million in the past year, the company’s annual report reveals.

EIRCOM deputy chairman Con Scanlon’s resignation as general secretary of the Communications Workers’ Union is being linked to a controversy over his dual role.

Tom Pomphrett, deputy director of the LRC, said he hoped the outstanding issue in the postal dispute would be resolved today.

Both sides involved in an escalating postal dispute in the were urged to compromise today as crisis talks reached deadlock.

A resolution to the escalating postal crisis looked a long way off tonight despite both sides entering into mediation talks.

A €140 million Government plan to deliver broadband to 80 towns throughout Ireland is an arrogant waste of money, the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) has warned.