Court rules Irish Rail should not pay €200k for now

The Labour Court has rejected a claim by unions that Irish Rail should now stump up around €200,000 in relocation allowances for almost 100 workers.

The court made its ruling after Irish Rail pleaded an inability to pay the 97 workers represented by the National Bus and Railworkers Union (NBRU) and Siptu.

The dispute centres around the staff working on Irish Rail’s ‘New Works Programme’ who have been transferred to other locations and the numbers involved is increasing due to staffing demands.

The unions argued that since 2006, an agreement had been put in place to effect relocation payments for redeployed staff that been applied throughout the company.

The unions claimed that Irish Rail was in breach of a collective agreement of which it is a signatory.

Examples of some of the relocations involved include from Enniscorthy to Cahir, Co Tipperary; from Drogheda to Dublin; from Drogheda to Enfield and from Drogheda to Mullingar. Relocation allowances are calculated on a fixed amount depending on distance, with an additional amount for each year of service.

Irish Rail told the Labour Court that the potential cost of the claim was in the region of €150,000 to €200,000 pointing out that “the payment of taxpayers’ money in this regard would be inappropriate and the company’s financial position does not allow for the payment of this additional cost”.

The rail company further stated that “the payment of this claim will serve to increase the deficit to be bridged and increase the burden of payroll savings on other employees”.

In its ruling, the Labour Court found that Irish Rail should acknowledge that payment is due and “for their part the union should acknowledge that the current financial circumstances of the company prevent it from making those payments at this time”.

As a result, the Labour Court has recommended that the payment be deferred for four years until the completion of Irish Rail’s Cost Containment (2) agreement in 2017.

Irish Rail corporate affairs manager Barry Kenny confirmed that the company would abide by the recommendation “at the time of completion of the Pay and Productivity agreement currently being negotiated — referred to as Cost Containment 2 in the Labour Court recommendation”.

He said: “We are in an extremely difficult financial situation, with exchequer Public Service Obligation down €65m since 2008 and passenger revenue down €35m.

He added: “While we have achieved cost savings of €66.8m during the same time period, we need to further reduce our cost base and have a Labour Court hearing with our trade unions on Aug 30 coming to urgently progress further Pay and Productivity cost savings, which we aim to do through engagement and agreement with our staff and trade unions.