Bus unions: Minister’s intervention ‘not enough’
Mr Donohoe said Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus had agreed to give a commitment that no current employees would be required to transfer to another operator as part of the tendering out of 10% of public services from late 2016. In all, drivers are preparing to engage in seven days of strikes over the next month over what they see as the privatisation of the routes.
“The two companies are immediately available to meet the unions concerned under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission so that this commitment can be formalised,” the minister said. “This commitment would mean that there is absolutely no threat to the security of tenure or the terms and conditions of the current members of Siptu or the National Bus and Rail Union, arising from the tender process. There is therefore no basis for industrial action by either union against the companies.”
He said other “issues” which driver unions, the NBRU and Siptu, had referred to as a justification for the strikes relate to government policies and legislation.
“As the bus companies have no control over these, strike action which would damage the companies and inconvenience their customers cannot be justified,” he said.
However, NBRU general secretary, Dermot O’Leary, said the minister had been out over the last week-and-a- half making “incremental contributions apparently with a view towards resolving the fundamental issues involved here. While it is to be welcomed that the minister is prepared to acknowledge some of our members’ concerns, he needs to move towards turning all this positivity into a workable solution, which will not alone focus on the issues he has addressed today, but also those that concern the future of both bus companies and the CIE Group as a whole”.
He said there needed to be clarity on what would happen to bus routes in 2019 when the next contract for bus services is due and also concrete assurances that there would be no race-to-the-bottom in the future in relation to terms and conditions for workers on the tendered routes.
Siptu organiser, Owen Reidy, said the minister’s intervention, while welcome, was “not enough”.
He said non-compulsion of bus drivers to move from their employer was just one of six issues which his union had raised over the tendering process. He questioned how the commitment given by the minister and companies would work for drivers in Waterford where 100% of services are to be tendered out.
Mr Reidy said Siptu was willing to go into the Labour Relations for further talks, but the strikes would not be called off until all the union’s concerns were adequately addressed.
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