The decision by Luas staff to reject proposals aimed at resolving the pay dispute at the Dublin light-rail system significantly increases the likelihood the service will be hit by a series of strikes in the weeks ahead.
Staff have decisively rejected proposals put forward by both the Labour Court and the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The company that operates the Luas system, Transdev, has said the most recent pay offer is now off the table.
In the absence of any further third-party intervention – which seems unlikely at present – the dispute looks set to escalate into a protracted conflict of attrition between staff and management.
The trade union, Siptu, has said that planned strikes on Easter Sunday and Monday will now go ahead. Four other strikes are also scheduled to take place in April. Further stoppages on other days are also likely to be on the cards.
Siptu signalled previously it would consider balloting Luas workers on proposals for an all-out strike that would shut down the system indefinitely.
Transdev had lined up a limited replacement bus service to operate on the occasion of a previously threatened, but subsequently cancelled, strike on St Patrick’s Day. However, the company has now ruled out any such move in the future. The company said it will now take stock of the situation and consider its position next week.
Government reaction
The Government’s stance to date has essentially been that the parties should use the offices of the WRC and the Labour Court to talk. However, given that these avenues seem exhausted for the moment, it has simply urged Siptu to call off the strikes for the Easter weekend.
Any substantive response by the Government to the Luas staff vote will be watched with interest, although its status as a caretaker administration may limit its scope for action.
To many outside observers, the rejection of the latest pay proposals by the Luas staff may be surprising, given the terms were superior in many instances to pay rises being secured elsewhere. The deal overall was worth up to 18 per cent over 33 months, or more than 6 per cent a year on average.
This is more than twice the average increase being projected by private sector firms for their employees this year.
Over the past year or so, the average pay deal in the private sector has been in the region of 2-3 per cent per annum.
However, Luas drivers in particular, the largest group of staff in the company, were unhappy with the structure of the proposals almost from the start, along with the productivity conditions that accompanied the pay offer.
Luas drivers objected strongly to plans to employ new entrants on rates reduced by 10 per cent.
However, the company argued that such a two-tier pay structure was permitted under a 2010 deal with Siptu. It said newly recruited drivers would still earn €31,000. it said this would be higher than any such driver in any light-rail system in Europe.
The drivers, in the recent WRC process, sought increases of 27 per cent along with improvements in conditions of employment. It is unclear as to whether they will now hold out to seek to achieve such a deal.
Pressure
Ironically, the decision to reject the pay offer may ease the immediate pressure of knock-on claims elsewhere.
However, unions have made it clear that, whatever the outcome of the Luas dispute, they will consider any such pay deal as a new benchmark in the transport sector to be applied across the CIÉ group of companies.
