Workers at Irish Rail have announced plans for five 24-hour strikes a part of a pay dispute with the company follows a meeting on Friday afternoon.
The trade union group representing all workers at Irish Rail have decided to serve notice on the company for the following series of industrial actions:
- Wednesday November 1st 24 hour Work Stoppage full withdrawal of labour and the placing of pickets
Tuesday November 7th 24 hour Work Stoppage full withdrawal of labour and the placing of pickets
Tuesday November 14th 24 hour Work Stoppage full withdrawal of labour and the placing of pickets
Thursday November 23rd 24 hour Work Stoppage full withdrawal of labour and the placing of pickets
Friday December 8th 24 hour Work Stoppage full withdrawal of labour and the placing of pickets
It comes after union members at Irish Rail voted ‘overwhelmingly’ in favour of industrial action.
SIPTU members voted by 84% in favour of action amid the ongoing pay dispute at the transport company, while NBRU members backed industrial action by 93%.
The ballot counts come only hours after talks broke down at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) overnight.
Tens of thousands of commuters are facing disruption.
Management say they offered a 1.75% pay rise, based on new productivity measures.
However, unions rejected the deal, with Irish Rail workers saying they still have not been offered a ‘no-strings’ attached deal.
Dermot O’Leary from the National Bus and Rail Union admitted that “no matter when you have a dispute on public transport, you will end up discommoding somebody”.
Irish Rail’s Barry Kenny says the company simply doesn’t have enough money to offer the pay-rises wanted.
“We have got accumulated losses of €160m, and we can’t do something that will pitch us towards insolvency, because that would risk our business and their jobs”.
Labour’s Transport Spokesperson, Senator Kevin Humphreys, has called on Irish Rail management and Minister for Transport Shane Ross to resolve the situation.
“At the heart of these disputes has been a failure by the Government to commit to appropriate levels of funding for vital public transport services. Once again the Budget failed to deliver on the needs of a growing economy that requires investment in vital public services”, he said.
