Compromise urged in post row

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

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

An Post and the Communications Workers’ Union engaged in separate talks chaired by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) in a bid to solve the row over cost-cutting measures.

But talks collapsed and the LRC warned both sides would have to shift their position if the row was to be resolved.

More than 500 staff at the Dublin Mail Centre remain suspended for failing to carry out certain duties and post boxes have been sealed across the capital.

Tom Pomphrett, deputy director of the LRC, said they had made little or no progress.

“The central issues are resolvable but it is impossible to make progress without change by one or other or both parties,” he told RTÉ radio.

“We will require some movement on their positions to make an effective intervention.”

The row centres on a new sorting system which union members claim was imposed without their agreement.

But company chiefs say they have no choice but to implement deals which have already been bought and paid for and which form part of an agreement on cost cutting and pay reform.

Fears have been growing that services across the state will be crippled unless the dispute, now in its sixth day, is imminently resolved.

Other areas expected to be badly affected include parts of counties Wicklow, Monaghan, Louth and Galway.