THE ratification of the Croke Park public service pay and reform deal still looks uncertain after more than 51,000 teachers were split in their vote on support for the agreement reached in April.

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has unanimously voted against the public service pay agreement and threatened potential strike action from September in response to the latest Cabinet cutbacks.

Chambers Ireland is criticising public-sector trade unions which have begun formally serving notice of industrial action on the Government.

The Garda Representative Association is to ballot its members for industrial action.

The Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has rejected the Taoiseach's assertion that a fall in the cost of living gives the Government more scope for cuts in the budget.

Workers across Ireland are embarking on a mass protest today to fight pay and spending cuts.

SIPTU members have voted by a significant four to one margin to back the new draft national pay deal.

DISTANCE-BASED road charges are the best way to solve Ireland’s transport problems, the Government’s sustainable development adviser has urged.

THIS week’s ruling from the European Commission that religious bodies can dismiss or refuse to employ people in their schools or hospitals who, they believe, do not share their ethos has provoked a strong reaction.

AMID pay talks and perceived “races to the bottom” in industry standards and pay, one would expect the trade union movement to be showing a “united” front these days.

A BALLOT on strike action by Aer Lingus pilots will be completed today and will be activated if the airline makes any attempt to implement new terms and conditions without their agreement.

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheál Martin said yesterday he responded with utter disbelief to the decision of the ICTU to lodge a formal complaint with the EU over the expansion of the Business Expansion Scheme.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary David Begg has characterised the Competition Authority as “uncaring and incompetent” and said control of competition policy has been “ceded to liberal zealots”.

Trade unionists have urged employers to carry out audits of their pay-scales to ensure gender equality between male and female staff.

Workers should accept proposals for a new national agreement on pay and employment rights, the country’s largest trade union said today.

A BREAK in the deadlock holding up agreement on a new national pay deal is hoped for today as all sides gear up to resume their marathon negotiations.

WITH Irish people borrowing like mad, the Central Bank risks being portrayed as ‘crying wolf’ following yet another warning that the housing market is in danger of overheating.

The grounding of four Irish Ferries ships could start hitting Irish manufacturing jobs within a fortnight, it was claimed today.

As a visiting head of state, US President George W Bush will be accorded all the diplomatic courtesies that protocol demands he be afforded during his short visit to Ireland this weekend.

WITH the future of Ireland's three main airports in the balance, there is more than a whiff of truth in Labour's charge that the Government is deliberately keeping the text of the Bill for the break up of AerRianta under wraps until after the elections.

People throughout Ireland have observed three minutes’ of silence in memory of the 200 people who died in last week’s bomb attacks in Madrid.

Three minutes of silence will be observed by the Taoiseach later in memory of the 200 victims who died in the Madrid bombings.

A European Union conference on the changing roles in the workplace will be held in Dublin Castle tomorrow.

A new minimum wage comes into effect this morning.

THE country’s 50,000 teachers are to be regulated by their peers under plans by the Government to establish the long-awaited Teaching Council this year.

A row over Government plans to ban all smoking in the workplace intensified today as pub landlords refused to withdraw a petition inviting bar staff to oppose the move.

SOARING childcare costs are forcing thousands of women to abandon their jobs and return home, figures from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) have revealed.

The national minimum wage is to increase to €7 an hour from next February.

FARM families are suffering hardship because of the effects of the month-old dispute involving staff in local offices of the Department of Agriculture and Food.

Thousands of anti-war protesters were gathering for peace marches in towns and cities across Ireland today.

UNIONS were urged yesterday to restrain their members as wildcat strikes, primarily over black economy employees, led to the lay-off of more than 2,000 building site workers in Limerick.

The Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have met to discuss the breakdown of the national pay agreement talks.

Ten of thousands of people across Northern Ireland are set to stop work in protest at terrorism.

Hopes are high that the industrial action leading to this week's chaos on the rail network is over.

Pickets at four AIBP meat plants are to be lifted following a breakthrough brokered by the Congress of Trade Unions and the employers body IBEC, according to a company statement released today.