The National Bus and Rail workers' Union has agreed to defer its one-day strike tomorrow and accept an invitation to attend the Labour Court. However, the union's general secretary, Mr Peter Bunting, said the committee was not cancelling the strike action proposed for next Monday and Tuesday at this stage. Action is being taken in pursuit of a 20 per cent pay claim.
This means that Dublin could once more face the prospect of traffic chaos on Monday. If the Dublin Bus strike goes ahead it could coincide with the threat of renewed industrial action on the DART. Iarnrod Eireann is expected to begin training new drivers that day. Both the train drivers' unions, the NBRU and SIPTU, have said their members will go on strike if trainees are introduced before compensation has been agreed for existing DART drivers.
The NBRU Dublin Bus branch executive is to meet on Friday to review its position in the light of progress made at the Labour Court tomorrow. Mr Bunting said the union was keeping the option of industrial action open because "we don't want to be dragged into a cosmetic exercise".
He said bus workers had been seeking a fundamental pay review for years. His members are hoping this will emerge from tomorrow's court hearing. Dublin Bus drivers have a basic scale of £204 to £268 a week, while basic pay for drivers of rigid trucks and articulated lorries is about £280 to £290 a week.
Dumper and forklift drivers in many companies earned over £290 a week, according to Mr Bunting, and in some companies, such as breweries, drivers earned more than £400 a week. Bus drivers, responsible for the safety of passengers, should have that recognised in their pay rates.
Mr Bunting did not want to speculate on what the court would do tomorrow, but he felt some mechanism had to be put in place "to examine the validity of the NBRU's claim".
SIPTU has also served strike notice for its drivers in Dublin Bus. Its branch committee is meeting today to consider the Labour Court invitation. It, too, is expected to defer action in order to attend the court.
Even if strike action is averted on Dublin Bus and the DART next Monday there is a serious prospect of a national strike by bus-drivers in the near future. Bus Eireann drivers, who are also members of the NBRU and SIPTU, are to ballot shortly on a Labour Court recommendation increasing the top of their pay scale from £280 to £300 a week.
Like Dublin Bus, the Bus Eireann drivers are seeking a new basic salary of £330 a week. Mr Bunting has already indicated that his union favours a national strike strategy if significant progress cannot be made in pay talks at company level.
Dublin Bus declined to comment on the dispute yesterday. Its spokesman said it had yet to be notified of the decisions of the two unions, but it was available for tomorrow's court hearing. The court issued its invitation yesterday morning.