Wildcat strike strands thousands of bus users
Nearly 180 drivers walked off the job in Limerick because the handwritten roster list at the city’s bus depot was replaced with a printed one.
“Ludicrous” was the reaction of a Bus Éireann spokeswoman.
All Bus Éireann nationwide services out of Limerick were cancelled for five hours after drivers refused to commence work at 6am.
Limerick city services were also blacked.
The drivers agreed to return to work at 11am when the Labour Relations Commission intervened and offered to give them a hearing next Wednesday.
Thousands of customers were left stranded.
A Bus Éireann spokeswoman said handwritten rosters had been replaced with computer printouts, which were put on display for the drivers.
She said: “This is just moving with the times, but drivers seem to have some difficulty with it. There is no difference. The data is the same, their duties are the same, their pay is the same, their work conditions are the same and their work pattern is the same. We are just moving on. This action is ludicrous.”
She said the only change from the handwritten roster is that the computer readout sets out the drivers’ names in alphabetical order.
In the older system, drivers were listed on top of the written roster according to seniority.
One company sources said: “The handwritten roster enabled some drivers to cherry-pick their working schedule.”
The change to a computerised, printed roster affects about 60 “spare” drivers, according to the drivers.
Their work schedule is based on filling in for drivers on holidays, on leave or on sick leave.
The bus drivers’ spokesman Dermot Healy said: “We were led to believe that it was just a question of replacing the old, handwritten roster with a printout. But that did not prove to be the case. The printout roster set out the names of the drivers in alphabetical order and this caused problems for the spare drivers.
He said there was a temporary stoppage on Thursday, and they returned to work on getting a commitment that the handwritten roster would be restored until issues regarding the computerised roster list were resolved.
Mr Healy said: “They reneged on that and the old roster list was not put on display this morning.”
He said inspectors had received training on the new computerised roster, but drivers had not.
One driver on the picket line said senior spare drivers were guaranteed shifts they wanted under the old system but junior drivers could get priority under the new one.
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