A company contracted to install and maintain the gas network has hit back at claims it ignored a proposed pay agreement with staff.
GMC Civil and Mechanical Engineering staff at a base in White's Cross in Cork as well as Carlow, Dublin and Limerick are striking today, following the breakdown of talks on Monday.
GMC says employees are paid in accordance with or exceeding industry norms and says a meeting will take place at the WRC next week.
Adrian Kane from SIPTU says staff are striking after the company refused to implement changes to pay and conditions agreed in May:
"I'd have to say I'm 28 years doing this job as a union official. And I've never seen a situation whereby a company would enter into an agreement with us and then just walk away from it. We went into negotiations on Monday to see if we could resolve it. And I'd have to say the talks collapse fairly quickly when management started to table issues that they had never tabled throughout the last number of months."
