SIPTU seeking "substantial" pay increases

[Jamie2k9]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0314/774667-luas/

Meanwhile, Iarnród Éireann management and unions are meeting at the WRC in a bid to resolve a dispute over proposals for a more-frequent, ten-minute DART service.

The expanded service, up from every 15 minutes currently, will mean more trains for customers, and more jobs for drivers.

An extra 1.6 million passenger journeys were made by DART in 2015 - a growth of over 10%, demonstrating the need for the additional services.

The company argues that the new schedule can be introduced within existing resources as it has trained up additional drivers.

However, SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Union insist that the move involves additional productivity.

The unions have already balloted for strike action in the event that the company moved to introduce the new timetable on 10 April without agreement.

The company's Director of Human Resources Ciaran Masterson said they were trying to agree rosters with the existing complement of staff to allow them to grow the DART service over the coming years.

He rejected union claims that the introduction of the new service was a productivity issue which should be dealt with in an ongoing Labour Court process.

However, NBRU General Secretary Dermot O'Leary said that as far as his union is concerned, the TEN-minute DART schedule is a productivity measure.

He said that once the company accepted that it was a productivity issue, then they could discuss compensation.

He acknowledged that workers in all three CIE group transport companies, who had been waiting years for a pay rise, were watching the Luas dispute closely - and were determined to get an increase this year, whatever happened in the transport sector.

SIPTU Assistant Organiser Paul Cullen said they were going to ask the company to take a step back - and withdraw the new timetable until such time as a Labour Court recommended investigation of productivity issues was completed.

However, he warned that if the company insisted on introducing the the-minute DART service without agreement, there will be a dispute.

He also confirmed that SIPTU has written to Iarnród Éireann confirming that it will be serving a "substantial" pay claim on the company this year, as its members received no increase since 2008.

SIPTU have been keeping themselves busy, the year IE likely returns to profit and it will be wiped out again. Time to accelerate cutting station staff to offset costs.

[Jamie2k9]

NBRU pay claim of 8-19% + Towards 2016 Transitional 6%

[Jamie2k9]

Both unions no longer attending talks for 10 minute DART service until pay talks are considered but the new timetable is going ahead next month!

http://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2016/...ish-rail-dart/

Will any action only be DART drivers or the whole lot of them?

[James Howard]

At least some good has come of it - the new timetable has been postponed.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/irela...oned-1.2591881

[Thomas J Stamp]

nothing to do with it. unions say that the new drivers will not be there till june anyway. The timetable was a political stunt for the election and now that's over it's been dumped and the unions blamed (as was predicted here)

[Jamie2k9]

nothing to do with it. unions say that the new drivers will not be there till june anyway. The timetable was a political stunt for the election and now that's over it's been dumped and the unions blamed (as was predicted here)

IE say they have been trained and waiting since end of last year.

So who is making up the 6 month lie?

[Thomas J Stamp]

Beats me, but thats what he said on national radio and I havent heard Barry Kenny out contradicting him. Maybe the drivers aren't all needed yet and some are coming over from other internal areas of the company. As such they can go on with their previous jobs??

[Mark Gleeson]

The game here is two fold

There are 81 drivers currently, new timetable would require 92 assuming 0 overtime and there are 9 new drivers gone into the system and more to come. The new drivers exist and are driving trains. There are of course claims the driver training program was delayed by union refusal to cooperate with the training (as is a normal business requirement)

The issue appear the unions are playing a work to rule. But it does come back to the ever repeating feeling that SIPTU & NBRU are trying to run the company.

Is it the unions concern if there are not enough drivers? Trains will be cancelled and unions get a double win, overtime and can complain about poor management. Back in 1984 the drivers were more than happy to play this card.

That said NRBU is on record as not having even reviewed the proposed rosters.

Its purely a money grabbing exercise like the 8 coach DART fiasco, they got nothing that time and are due nothing here.

[Inniskeen]

The whole exercise is somewhat of a farce to satisfy a vanity project that delivers little at the expense of unacceptable disruption to a large portion of existing Connolly route users, an increase in journey times for everybody, delays at level crossings and an inevitable decline in reliability due to congestion.

There is ample stock to increase/restore DART set sizes to accommodate increased demand without penalising everybody else. The main issue with DART is the nonsense of using 4-car trains at peak periods.

[ACustomer]

What you say is spot on, Mark. What I find depressing is that practically no-one in the media and certainly no-one in the political establishment has the cojones to say or do anything.

Maybe the political impasse over a new government explains some of this, but I think that the fear of politicians ever to say anything that might offend anyone goes beyond the present circumstances. And the irony is that said politicians end up being massively unpopular anyhow.