Trade unions at Eircom are to ballot members for industrial action in a dispute over the payment of the latest phase of the national wage agreement.
The company has not had a strike since 1978.
Babcock & Brown, which owns Eircom, is withholding a 2 per cent pay increase due under the Towards 2016 national wage deal until the unions sign a "memorandum of understanding" (MoU) with the company.
The MoU relates to work practice changes which Eircom's Australian owners wish to implement.
Steve Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), said the unions were willing to discuss any changes to work practices but they would not agree to "preconditions" before the 2 per cent basic pay rise would be paid.
Mr Fitzpatrick said the company was in breach of the terms of Towards 2016. In a letter sent yesterday to Rex Comb, Eircom's chief executive, he stated: "The CWU will cancel the proposed ballot if you give the union a written, unequivocal guarantee that all outstanding monies will be paid ASAP."
The CWU represents more than 5,000 workers at Eircom. Impact and the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) are also involved in the dispute.
Union members will vote over the next fortnight. Eircom's current and former staff own about 35 per cent of the company.
In a strongly worded memo sent to members on Wednesday, CPSU assistant general secretary Kevin Gaughran said this was another demonstration of Babcock & Brown's "Aussie Rules" style of management.
Unions are angry that Eircom recently announced plans to cut 900 jobs by the end of 2010 without first consulting them.
Eircom said it intended to make the 2 per cent payment and backdate it to May 1st but unions had failed to engage in a process to improve customer service.
In his memo to CPSU members, Mr Gaughran described management statements that it was willing to apply the 2 per cent increase due from May 1st as "meaningless and worthless".
Eircom, he added, would only apply the pay increase if it got "carte blanche from the unions to implement massive change as they see fit".
He said the terms of Towards 2016 did not "oblige us to sell our souls for such a paltry increase".
In a letter to staff on Wednesday, Mr Comb reminded them that they received "favourable pay and conditions"; were able to work with "a sense of security" given that it had never enforced involuntary redundancies; enjoyed "generous" pension benefits; and that ESOP members received "substantial tax-free payments" at regular intervals.
