Tight deadlines for comprehensive talks on the future of An Post have been proposed by the Labour Relations Commission in an attempt to break the deadlock in the postal dispute.
The commission has also recommended that staff suspended by the company over the past 11 days should be restored to the payroll before talks begin.
The Communications Workers' Union is to consider the proposals at a meeting of its postal executive committee today. Senior managers at the company were studying the plan last night.
The two sides had earlier failed to reach agreement in 12 hours of talks with the LRC, which ended shortly before 3 a.m. yesterday.
During those talks, the LRC chief executive, Mr Kieran Mulvey, and assistant director of conciliation, Mr Tom Pomphrett, put forward a formula designed to end the dispute.
It proposed a mechanism to get the postal service restored and talks started on a recovery plan for An Post, which is losing €600,000 a week. Both sides received a new set of proposals from Mr Mulvey last night.
The commission's proposals in effect contain a "carrot" for both sides. A key demand of the union is that suspended staff be reinstated before talks begin.
The LRC, it is understood, recommends that the status quo at the Dublin Mail Centre prior to the suspension of staff there be restored.
In effect, workers would return under conditions that applied at the centre prior to the decision by management to introduce a new sorting system, which was at the centre of the dispute.
However, that potential victory for the union is tempered by the timetable proposed by the commission for substantive talks on the future of the company.
It proposes that talks on two issues of critical importance to the company, the introduction of full automation and a rationalisation of collection and delivery services, be conducted within a four-week schedule.
Talks on all other issues should be concluded by mid-May, the commission says.
These recommendations should go some way towards satisfying a management demand that the CWU return to the table to negotiate a comprehensive settlement on a future, slimmed-down operation.
Postal deliveries in Dublin and parts of a number of other counties have been reduced to a fraction of the normal rate because of the dispute.
A total of 555 staff at the mail centre have been suspended and a further 89 temporary staff at delivery offices laid off.
