The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) has invited parties for discussion in an effort to avert any industrial action.
We have posted previously on this topic as Management at Bus Eireann have sought to reduce costs by unilateral changes to terms and conditions beginning this Sunday, and employees and Unions have stated their intention to take industrial action.
As reported today, Director of Conciliation Kevin Foley has called on Management and Unions to attend the LRC tomorrow morning. Bus Éireann and SIPTU have confirmed that they will attend the talks.
The format of their discussions will be;
- The LRC will assess the situation in individual meetings with each group during the morning; then
- There will be a plenary meeting of all parties in the afternoon to see if there is a basis for progress.
You may recall that the LRC intervened in the Aer Lingus pension dispute before Christmas in an effort to avert strike action and managed to broker an agreement.
As mentioned Bus Éireann plans to implement cuts in terms and conditions for staff from Sunday without union agreement. Unions have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action if the cuts are implemented with SIPTU warning that the dispute could spread to the two other CIE group companies: Dublin Bus and Irish Rail. This picketing will be governed by very stringent rules under Section 11 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990. Also Irish Rail have posted publicly that their services are running as normal as they are not a party to the dispute.
This issue is sure to burn for the coming days and should it run until Sunday when the amendments are due to come into force as it could cause sever disruption to commuters.
