Irish Rail claims it made ‘concrete proposals’ to NBRU

The National Bus and Rail Workers Union (NBRU) has dismissed Irish Rail's claim that the company formally offered to refer talks to the Labour Court ahead of last month's industrial action.

Dermot O'Leary, general secretary of the NBRU, rejected claims by Barry Kenny from Irish Rail that the company made a formal offer to bring the dispute over pay productivity to the Labour Court ahead of the stoppage on October 23rd, Mr Kenny said the offer was declined.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, Mr O'Leary said only the Workplace Relations Commission had the authority to make formal recommendations.

The decision to refer the dispute between unions and management at Iarnród Éireann to the Labour Court was announced at 4am on Friday morning, cancelling the planned nationwide three-hour rail strike.

Mr O’Leary said Friday’s decision was the “culmination of twelve days of frustration” over issues the unions brought to the discussion table. “Rather than put our members through a situation where they would be ridiculed at the hands of the country... we took back ownership of those issues and put them into the Labour court.”

“Throughout this dispute we had a situation where spin was put on so called pay rises on offer,” said Mr O’Leary. “The pay rise that was an offer was one that the drivers were expected to generate themselves. There was too much being demanded by workers to self-finance their own deal.”

Mr Kenny said the productivity measures offered by Irish rail were the only option available to a company losing €1million a month. He also rejected Mr O’Leary’s claims that Irish Rail sought to ridicule members of its workforce.

“We were the only party to make concrete proposals that would have improved the earnings of the drivers which was the goal from the outset,” said Mr Kenny.

“It’s a formal process now through the Labour Court. We will engage with that constructively and respect that process to address the outstanding issues.”

In a statement from the NBRU, Mr O’Leary said Friday’s decision to withdraw from the talks was in response to “the complete and utter disdain shown by the company towards our members legitimate agenda”.

He continued: “It is unfortunate that the company are continuing with this falsehood that our members have somehow lost out on a 7.9 per cent pay rise when the fact of the matter is that any such improvements could only come on the back of train drivers themselves generating the necessary productivity to finance any pay improvement.”

Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe welcomed the talks referral to the Labour Court but warned that the dispute could only be resolved through an agreement that was affordable to Irish Rail and the Irish taxpayer.

He added that further strike action would be “off the agenda” while the Labour Court was involved in talks.

“Industrial action of this scale means the commuter is a loser, its means Irish Rail is a loser, and given that both those parties are losing, it further increases the financial difficulty that Irish Rail and CIE have to deal with,” said Mr Donohoe.

“It has to be resolved in a way that is firstly affordable for Irish Rail themselves. We’re dealing with a company here that’s losing €1 million a month .”

A spokeswoman for Irish Rail confirmed that only 50 per cent of the usual number of commuters travelled by train on Friday morning following the 4am decision to call off industrial action. She noted that Intercity services witnessed a notable drop as many customers made alternative travel arrangements.

Irish rail has confirmed that commuters who were unaware of the last minute strike cancellation are entitled to a refund. Passengers are asked to submit their ticket for refund at the station where it was bought or by downloading a refund form.

The spokeswoman said there was no threat of further industrial action at present.