Public service trade unions have put in place a ban on staff answering telephones across all government departments this afternoon.
The move forms part of the current campaign of industrial action in protest at pay cuts introduced in the Budget.
Up to now civil service staff, who are members of the CPSU union, have held rolling telephone bans in different Government departments and agencies.
However CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said that telephones are not being answered in all departments since lunchtime. He said that the action was being taken in conjunction with members of another civil service union, the PSEU.
Earlier today, trade unions said they would defer the escalation of their campaign of industrial action in the public service for up to a month to allow the Government decide if it wants to re-engage in talks.
Speaking following a meeting of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions this morning, Tom Geraghty, general secretary of the PSEU said that it had identified various actions that could be taken as part of an escalation of the campaign.
However he said that the committee was of the view that unions should hold off for four weeks before taking the action to a situation where it had a significant impact on the public.
Mr Geraghty said that said that the purpose was to ensure that the Government would avail of the opportunity to re-engage with the trade unions if that was its wish.
"The purpose of this action is not to impact on the public but rather to create the circumstances in which we could have a meaningful engagement", he said.
Mr Geraghty declined to comment on the nature of the planned escalation of the campaign of industrial action.
In the meantime the relatively low-level industrial action in the public service in protest at pay cuts introduced in the Budget, which has been underway for several weeks, is to continue.
The industrial action has seen unions close public offices at certain times during the day and put in place bans on answering phones in Government departments and offices on a rolling basis.