Management accused of dirty tricks

TRAIN drivers in Cork yesterday accused management of dirty tricks over replacing old carriages with new ones without their knowledge.

Drivers insisted they had received insufficient training to deal with the new carriages, which are being hooked up to standard Iarnród Éireann locomotives.

One said yesterday: “We had a meeting with management scheduled for tomorrow and we had asked them not to use the new carriages until then but they brought them in this morning.

“We had been expecting them to put the new carriages on the 9am service from Dublin to Cork but they put them on the 5.30am Cork to Dublin one.

“It’s a terrible shame for the passengers but management have forced this one.”

Drivers are unhappy that the €117 million fleet of 67 new trains will be able to operate with two train staff instead of three.

In return for a series of changes at work, drivers are seeking a reduction in their working week to 35 hours from what they say is 43-and-a-half hour week with two contingency hours.

They are in negotiation with Irish Rail over new safety standards, which include penalty points for drivers, the new carriages and a scheme to train new drivers.

Yesterday morning, train drivers gathered outside the main entrance to Cork’s deserted Kent station awaiting word about the stoppage. They said management had stopped them from working.

Iarnród Éireann business development manager Andrew Roche said thousands of passengers had been affected by Cork’s unofficial stoppage, which also affected services in Dublin, Galway and Limerick.

He said that yesterday was meant to be the first day of scheduled trials of the new carriages.