The deadlock in the Iarnrod Eireann dispute continues. After legal advice, the Labour Relations Commission has declined to get involved at this stage and has written to members of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association, advising them they had not exhausted the company's internal grievance procedures.
ILDA executive secretary Mr Brendan Ogle, however, greeted the LRC's decision as a "significant breakthrough" last night. He said that, assuming the LRC response was along the lines indicated in media reports, he would be writing immediately to Iarnrod Ereann's Eireann's managing director, Mr Joe Meagher, and the company's human resources manager, Mr John Keenan, asking them to process the grievances of ILDA members.
"If no response is received within 24 hours, an extraordinary meeting of ILDA members will consider further action," he said. He had already written to the company on June 16th, two days before new work rosters were introduced, pointing out that it was not complying with Statutory Instrument 146, which allowed individual train drivers to be represented by the ILDA at grievance hearings.
He said use of SI 146 by the company and the LRC was now "probably the only mechanism we will utilise to resolve this dispute".
Some 72 of the 128 letters handed in by the ILDA on behalf of drivers to the LRC were unsigned and the commission will be asking those drivers to confirm the letters represent their views. Mr Ogle described this as "extremely petty" on the part of the LRC. It was widely accepted practice to "pp" letters, he said, and he had received such letters himself from officers of the LRC.
Mr Keenan said the LRC's decision confirmed the company's "own view that SI 146 does not provide any new mechanism or rights for the people concerned. "We do have a grievance procedure in Iarnrod Eireann, where people work normally while they are being processed, that is, they work the new rosters."
Meanwhile, talks were taking place last night in Dublin to resolve the unofficial dispute involving SIPTU and NBRU workers in Kent station, Cork. This prevented the loading of an ammonia train for Arklow yesterday. Apparently, the meeting had to be moved to Dublin because a venue could not be agreed between the two unions in Cork.
Unions and management remained convinced last night that the Cork dispute could be resolved quickly, allowing for an improvement in services to the capital. Tourism in the west and south-west have been most severely hit by the dispute. Tourists have been reluctant to use the bus services provided by Iarnrod Eireann in place of disrupted trains.
Today's Arrow service will be seriously curtailed, with only four trains leaving Kildare between 6.45 a.m. and 11.55 a.m. and two trains leaving Heuston, at 7.45 a.m and 11 a.m.