Train services are expected to improve significantly today with a return to work by SIPTU train drivers and other staff at Cork's Kent Station.
The first contingent of SIPTU members returned last night and empty trains were redirected from Mallow to resume a direct link with Dublin from this morning. Deliveries of supplies to Irish Fertilisers' Arklow plant are also expected to resume today, thus averting the threatened lay-off of 200 employees.
However, there are still fears that the dispute between Iarnrod Eireann and the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association could escalate before the end of the week. The ILDA executive is due to meet this afternoon in Dublin to review the situation. An earlier plan to call an extraordinary general meeting of members was cancelled.
The ILDA is giving Iarnrod Eireann until this afternoon to comply with the association's interpretation of the Labour Relations Commission statement on Monday that internal company grievance procedures be exhausted before the dispute is referred to the LRC.
While the ILDA is seeking to process the grievances of its members itself, the company has decided to write to each train driver individually offering to "fast-track" grievances.
Yesterday ILDA executive secretary Mr Brendan Ogle said none of his members would be responding to the letters from Iarnrod Eireann and the association will be referring the dispute back to the LRC.
The differences centre around the meaning of the term "registered trade union" in Statutory Instrument 146, signed into law by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, on May 26th. Mr Ogle believes the ILDA is covered, because it is a registered society with the Registrar of Friendly Societies.
Iarnrod Eireann believes that it is not, because trade unions are defined in the 1990 Industrial Relations Act as bodies possessing negotiating licences. ILDA does not qualify on these grounds.
The company is writing today to the ILDA's solicitor, Mr Donal Spring, outlining its position, including the possibility of legal action against the association and its members.
The company's human resources manager Mr John Keenan said yesterday that it would make every effort to expedite the grievance procedures for drivers returning to work the new rosters. Mr Ogle said this was tantamount to "asking someone to begin serving their prison sentence before they had been tried".
Mr Ogle refused to be drawn on what action the ILDA might take if the LRC does not intervene in the dispute. There has been speculation that ILDA members might mount bucket collections at DART and Dublin Bus depots.
These could cause disruption to services if SIPTU and NBRU drivers refused to pass them. However, ILDA sources said that "more spectacular" action was being considered for later this week.
The chief executive of the LRC, Mr Kieran Mulvey, has ruled out early intervention in the dispute. He said the ILDA should give the company more time to respond to drivers grievances.
He also said the commission "does not have the power to confer on the ILDA status equivalent to that of SIPTU and the NBRU, who are the sole negotiating unions for locomotive drivers in CIE. For us to do otherwise would have the potential for provoking a national transport dispute."
Meanwhile, Iarnrod Eireann has been appealing to customers to return. In Limerick the chamber of commerce said the company had written to businesses expressing concern at the poor take-up of the resumed train services. In Cobh, the local chamber said business and other commuters had organised car pools they would be reluctant to abandon, even if local train services resumed.
