University College Cork is to take legal proceedings in a bid to prevent unions for placing pickets on its campus.

Members of trade unions IFUT and SIPTU at the Tyndall research institute are engaged in industrial action at the college in a row over pay parity.

A number of days of strike have been announced for this month, including a picket of the entrance to the main campus on May 13th.

UCC says this will cause disruption for students taking their end of year exams and as a result it's asking the High Court to prevent the strike.

A statement from the university today said that after reflection on "the immeasurable anxiety, loss and damage to students which the threat of a disruption to examinations is likely to cause", they decided to issue the unions with a final chance to withdraw the threat of pickets on the campus.

The unions responded by saying they still intend to picket the campus on May 13, according to UCC, and "in this regard the University has been left with no alternative but to make an application to the High Court for the appropriate injunctive relief."