A strike at building materials group Roadstone Woods, which has run for three weeks, has been suspended. Members of the trade union Siptu, in a dispute over bonus payments, are to ballot on new proposals in a Labour Court recommendation.

The Labour Court recommended that staff bonuses, cut two years ago, should be restored more quickly than the company was proposing. The row centred on annual bonuses, ranging from €3,686 for salaried staff to €5,832 for craft workers, which were cut by nearly 90 per cent in 2012 in an attempt to save €6 million. Siptu said that as that target had been achieved, the payments should be immediately restored. The company had argued that the bonuses should be restored on a phased basis, until 2019.

The Labour Court recommended the bonus payments be put back more quickly. Under the proposals, staff would receive 25 per cent of the bonus this year, 40 per cent next year and in 2016 it would rise to 55 per cent of the original figure. The full bonus would be restored in 2017, subject to the business environment at that time.

The recommendation said the parties would assess the environment in September 2017 and if they could not agree on the level of bonus, the matter would be referred back to the Labour Court.

The Labour Court recommendation said the strike, which began on June 16th, should be suspended pending a ballot of staff. It said both parties should agree that they would not engage “in any form of victimisation or retaliation against any person whether they supported the dispute or worked for all or any period of the current strike or industrial action”.

Siptu organiser David Lane said: "The ballot will be conducted on 7th and 8th July. The national committee has not made any recommendation to members on how they should vote."