Labour Court, LRC to examine dispute

Moves by the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission to investigate claims and counter-claims in the locomotive-drivers' dispute have been broadly welcomed.

With the dispute entering its third month tomorrow, the chairman of the Labour Court, Mr Finbarr Flood, and the chief executive of the LRC, Mr Kieran Mulvey, said they would investigate the circumstances of the dispute and issue a report within three months. In a joint statement, they said the proposals they put forward last weekend would have allowed for a return to work by the drivers.

Although the ILDA drivers decided not to return to work, the LRC and Labour Court "believe that in the public interest they should proceed to investigate the background circumstances of the dispute".

Iarnrod Eireann also welcomed the initiative and urged drivers to return to work. Services will operate on a basis similar to previous days but intending passengers are asked to ring the information line at 1850 366222.

However, Mr Brendan Ogle, ILDA's executive secretary, who welcomed the initiative, again rejected claims that SIPTU and NRBU drivers were working a safe system. He said the safety consultant they had hired, Mr P.G. Rayner, was in the process of preparing a submission to the court and the commission.

Mr Rayner had issued a statement in which he said his safety fears about the original proposals "are still unanswered by the Halcrow report, which is not transparent in any way and does not address the issues that most concerned me." Halcrow are the safety experts who validated the company's system.

Mr Ogle said he stood to gain £5,500 from the new arrangement but he was not going back to work the new roster because it was unsafe. Under the old roster they worked a six-day week, nine hours a day, he insisted.

He accused the other unions of doing the work of ILDA drivers, and said that no union member should pass a picket but that SIPTU and the NBRU had done so and it was "disgraceful". If Iarnrod Eireann would guarantee ILDA members a 48-hour, five-day week, with a maximum nine hours and breaks, they would have answered half the 10 points the organisation put in their submission on Monday. But the company would not do that.