Postal services in many parts of the country are likely to be severely disrupted from today due to an escalating row between An Post and the Communications Workers' Union.
The dispute led to the suspension at the weekend of 262 staff at the company's Dublin Mails Centre, where 60 per cent of the State's mail is processed. Further suspensions overnight were anticipated.
An Post, in newspaper advertisements today, is asking people not to post mail in, or to, a number of areas, including Dublin and several other districts.
Mail posted to or in Galway is also subject to "serious delay" because of a separate dispute, it warns.
Small business organisations warned that members would be particularly badly hit if the disputes were not resolved quickly.
The row at the Dublin Mails Centre in Clondalkin occurred just hours after the CWU deferred a decision on a national postal strike on Friday.
It claims an arbitrary change in work practices, related to a new sorting system the company planned to introduce tomorrow, was imposed on staff without agreement.
This is disputed by An Post, which says the union instructed staff not to carry out duties that were part of their normal work. It was left with no option but to suspend the staff concerned, it said.
An Post's spokesman accused the union of acting in a cynical manner by taking industrial action at the State's largest mail hub, where three million items of mail are processed daily.
"The action is clearly designed to maximise disruption to mail services while attempting to minimise impact on their own membership and finances," he said.
However, Mr Seán McDonagh, the CWU's national officer with responsibility for An Post, accused the company of provoking a crisis, after the union had given it an opportunity on Friday to resolve the issues between them.
An Post has been advising customers for some weeks not to post items to or from Tuam, Co Galway, or Drogheda, Co Louth, because of unofficial disputes in those areas.
In its advertisements today, it is also asking customers not to post items to or from Dublin city and county, Bray, Carrickmacross, Castleblayney, Dundalk, Greystones, Kells, Navan or Wicklow.
Galway city and county are not included in the list, but delays are being experienced in those areas, as well as in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
At least some deliveries to the affected areas may continue for the time being, despite the escalation of the dispute.
An Post's spokesman said mail had been processed and was scheduled for delivery to the areas concerned.
Mr McDonagh said postmen and women would continue to work, as the union would not be provoked into overreacting.
In the absence of a quick resolution to the row, however, a backlog of mail is likely to build.
There is also the continuing threat of an all-out strike. Having deferred its decision on Friday, the CWU executive meets again today to consider the matter.
Members have already balloted by a six-to-one majority for industrial action, for which notice expired on Friday.
The strike threat is over two issues. The union claims the firm has failed to implement the pay-and-reward elements of an agreement, Transformation Through Partnership, signed in 2000.
The second issue is the Government's failure to introduce legislation allowing for the establishment at An Post of an employee share ownership plan (ESOP), agreed as part of the TTP.
The work changes at the centre of the latest dispute are also related to the TTP agreement.
An Post says it has invested €100 million in four automated hubs, including the Dublin centre, as agreed under the TTP, but CWU members are refusing to implement the agreed changes.
It had planned to introduce a new inward sorting procedure at the centre from tomorrow in order to reduce overtime at delivery centres. A spokesman insisted, however, that the new system did not involve any change in work practices for mail centre staff.
