Hundreds of taxi drivers staged a work stoppage at Dublin airport this morning while another group marched through Dublin city centre in protest at the lack of an appeals process with the Taxi Regulator and the number of taxi licences being issued.
Siptu official Jerry Brennan said he receives calls on a daily basis from drivers worried about money. The minimum wage stands at €8.65 per hour for adults, yet Mr Brennan claims many drivers are taking home as little as €4 an hour, or less.
"They're lucky if they are turning over €60 a day at the moment there's so much competition he said. "If you take fuel and a breakdown of their insurance costs, they're lucky if they're taking home €40."
About 300 drivers marched from Parnell Street to a letter of protest into the Department of Transport and onto the Taxi Regulator's office demanding a cap on the number of new licences.
Meanwhile, around 30 Siptu members protested at Dublin airport for four hours this morning as part of a campaign aimed at establishing an independent board where drivers can appeal decisions by the Taxi Regulator.
Mr Brennan, who worked as a driver in Dublin for 11 years, said drivers are being forced to work between 10 and 12 hour days. He claimed one man contacted him at the weekend after working from 9pm on Friday to the following morning, and making just €70.
"I know for a fact that [drivers] are struggling," Mr Brennan said. "The number of telephone calls I get on a daily basis from ordinary family men saying what can I do, asking if there are any provisions for them. It comes down to the fact that there is not enough work out there for the number of taxis currently vying for hire in the entire country, it's really bad."
But a spokesman for the Commission for Taxi Regulation said its job is not to monitor how lucrative the business is for drivers. "It's role is to make sure that standards are high in the industry. They don't have a role in relation to earnings of drivers, drivers are self employed," the Regulator's spokesman said.
"The commission can't do anything about limiting numbers, that would require legislation from the Oireachtas. It's important to remember what the Commission's role is."
Almost 25,000 taxis were operating in Dublin at the end of last year - a jump of over 1,700 on the figure for 2007. But the Regulator said there has been a 48 per cent drop in the number of people applying for taxi licences since May of last year.
An economic review of taxi fares being carried out by Goodbody Economic Consultants on behalf of the Regulator is due in the coming months.
As well as the issue of taxi licence numbers, the Siptu drivers are also concerned that they have no institutional means of addressing grievances. Mr Brennan said drivers were protesting because, unlike virtually every other group in the workforce, they have no right of appeal from decisions by the Regulator under the Taxi Regulation Act of 2003."
Taxi drivers have no access to the Rights Commissioner Service, the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court."
However, Fine Gael's Seanad transport spokesman Senator Paschal Donohoe said the protest had "risked the public support" taxi drivers needed.
He said such support was essential "if any industry reforms are to take place. The strikers could end up been their own worst enemy by disrupting Dublin this morning.”