Dublin Bus hits out at unofficial strike

Dublin Bus tonight criticised an unofficial drivers’ strike which left up to 50,000 passengers stranded.

The company said it was carrying out an investigation into the disruption and had not ruled out sanctions against the drivers involved.

Spokeswoman Grainne Macken said: “We had a huge amount of disruption over what appeared to be an isolated incident over one driver. Nobody gained anything – all that was achieved was to have commuters standing on the side of the road.”

Up to 50,000 people in Rathmines, Terenure, Templeogue and Tallaght were left without bus services in the morning.

Ms Macken said drivers had to follow proper procedures rather than engaging in unofficial actions.

“Unofficial action, by its very nature, is subject to a reaction by the company. The management will be talking with the union (about it),” she said.

The dispute began when a driver mounted a lone picket outside the Ringsend Bus depot and other drivers refused to pass.

Les Hughes said he had been urinated upon by bus passengers in Drimnagh in Dublin last week and then placed on sick leave against his will at a cost of €500 in overtime.

He said Dublin Bus was not doing enough to prevent assaults on its 2,500 drivers.

“I don’t come in to work to be urinated and spat on. I come in to give a service, to get people from A to B as quickly and as safely as possible,” he told RTÉ radio.

“There’s not a day that goes by without something happening. You’d be safer in Beirut.”

The unofficial picket outside the depot continued until 10am. Dublin Bus, which carries around 500,000 passengers every day, said full services resumed at 10.45am.

Dublin Bus maintained that attacks on its drivers were few and far between. It has installed security cameras and Perspex screens around the driver’s seat in all buses, as well as arranging for gardaí to provide late night escorts to buses in danger areas.