A Labour Court conciliation meeting has failed to resolve what has become known as the "Time in Loo" dispute at a US-owned factory in Limerick.
More than 100 employees, members of SIPTU, and craftworkers at Fulflex International have been suspended for failure to comply with new regulations which include the use of "swipe cards" to record time workers spend away from their work stations.
A company spokesman said that there was "widespread and persistent abuse" of reasonable rest allowance time. "Typically, this abuse is more than double the agreed allowance, with as much as 2 1/2 hours of the paid eight hours daily being unproductive."
A spokesman for the workers said that the company had refused to negotiate on the new "swiping" system.
Mr Frank McDonnell, the SIPTU vice-chairman at the factory, said industrial relations had been bad for the past couple of years. He added: "We served strike notice two weeks ago because of their failure to adhere to the procedural agreement in our original contract. Then they issued us with a new 24-point contract, which we were told we had to comply with, and they refused any negotiations."
The firm, which has been in Limerick since 1969, manufactures elastic tapes, threads and rings.