Full-time staff at Kilkenny Castle and the adjacent park are set to begin industrial action with a one-day work stoppage next Tuesday, two days before the official opening of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, writes Carol Duffy.
The SIPTU members say they are taking the action in an effort to improve their working environment and what they describe as the "climate of industrial relations" at the tourist attraction.
Mr Bill Mulcahy, SIPTU's Kilkenny Public Sector Administrative and Services branch secretary, said 17 union members would be involved in the industrial action which would take the form of a series of one-day strikes.
They will start on August 5th but will continue on dates decided by the strike committee. A withdrawal from specified duties by certain union members will also begin on August 6th.
Mr Mulcahy said: "The dispute centres on the failure by local management to implement key recommendations contained in a report issued by the Labour Relations Commission advisory service in December 2002."
He said there were other outstanding industrial relations issues within Kilkenny Castle which were not being dealt with by local management.
"We regret having to take this action in the run-up to the Kilkenny Arts Festival," he said, "but all our efforts over the past 18 months to improve industrial relations at the castle have been frustrated by local management."
SIPTU members at the castle and the park alongside work as guides, constables, general operatives, cleaners and storekeepers.
An "action art" exhibit previously installed at the Great Wall of China, Moscow's Red Square, the Egyptian pyramids at Giza and the Arche de la Défense in Paris is due to be displayed in the castle grounds during the festival, which opens on August 8th.