Second day of protest at British Embassy

Staff at the British Embassy in Ireland will stage a second day of strike action today as a row over job cuts worsened.

Staff at the British Embassy in Ireland will stage a second day of strike action today as the row over job cuts worsens.

Pickets will be staged outside the embassy gates and at Ambassador David Reddaway's Glencairn residence on the outskirts of south Dublin.

Earlier this week, more than 40 workers, all members of the union Unite, voted unanimously to take to the streets for the second time.

The row broke out after three Irish workers were written to and told they faced being made redundant. Embassy bosses said the cuts were compulsory.

More than 40 members of staff from the Dublin embassy, including trade and industry, passport section workers, administration and household staff joined the first one-day strike last Thursday.

Derek Simpson, Unite general secretary, has written to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband asking for his intervention and calling for common-sense to prevail.

The union insists the decision on compulsory redundancies, which is understood to have originated in London, falls outside agreed procedures drawn up to deal with disputes since 2003.