Up to 150 Servisair ground staff at Dublin Airport are in official dispute with the company after reportedly being "locked out" of their place of work.
A SIPTU spokesman told ireland.comthat workers staged a sit-in protest yesterday after they were suspended by the company for refusing to operate new roster arrangements.
He said the decision by the company to lock-out the workers today meant that SIPTU was now officially in dispute with the company since 12 p.m.
Further, unspecified, industrial action could be expected tomorrow, he added.
He also accused the company of importing up to 120 "strike breakers" from Britain.
No representative from Servisair was available this evening.
Yesterday, Servisair spokesman Mr Peter White said the company offered all employees the opportunity to adhere to the new rostering scheme, which he claimed applies across the entire ground-handling business. "Those who didn’t adopt them were suspended," he said.
