Nobody comes out well in the review group report Iarnrod Eireann: The Way Forward, published yesterday. The unions are accused of restrictive practices, resistance to new technology, blocking the use of contractors and demanding compensation for minor changes in work practices. Management structures are criticised as weak, lacking customer focus, and even failing to ensure unions deliver on the few changes conceded and paid for.
The practical consequences can be seen in driver shortages, delays in upgrading commuter routes and a deterioration in the DART service to Howth.
Will this report change things? Some of the proposals, such as the appointment of a chief operations officer, have been tried before. The company's plans to appoint one in the early 1990s were a casualty of cutbacks proposed in the Buckley Report, when the emphasis was still on cost cutting.
Even the most radical measure in the report, the establishment of a Joint Industrial Council (JIC), is not new. Iarnrod Eireann had one up until the early 1960s.
However, there are signs the new report, prepared by former IBEC director general Mr John Dunne, former SIPTU general secretary Mr Billy Attley and former secretary general of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mr Kevin Bonner, will work. The main clue is on page 47 buried under the innocuous heading "Benchmarking".
This lists off "appropriate criteria for benchmarking", including acceptance of binding decisions by management and unions, resolving as many issues as possible at local level, reducing the number of bargaining units in the company from 33 to five and making "identifiable progress" in developing a partnership model.
The critical provision is that the Labour Court will monitor developments under all the headings. If it finds "sustained progress" has been made a "progress" bonus of 5 per cent will be made to staff in the first year of the JIC's operations. Another 2 per cent bonus will be paid in year two and 3 per cent in each of the following three years.
This is the carrot that may draw the reluctant parties into a more flexible working environment. For managers, the expert group proposes better training, incentives for achieving targets and the buying-in of expertise where necessary.
It is ironic that the Labour Court has been given this watchdog role as the report criticises company management and unions for referring too many disputes too early to the court. The unions are also criticised for running to the "chief shareholder" with problems.
Yesterday, the current "chief shareholder", the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, welcomed the report and asked the executive chairman of CIE, Mr John Lynch, to respond "on how best, in a spirit of partnership the we can now move forward to transform the company". Mr Lynch is currently abroad but a company spokesman said it would co-operate fully with the Minister and unions in implementing the report. More significantly, the unions also seemed to be positive. SIPTU rail branch secretary Mr Tony Tobin said that if a JIC worked in the ESB it could work in CIE.