Siptu has said it will not be issuing a recommendation to members in the ballot on whether to accept Labour Relations Commission (LRC) proposals that averted this weekend’s strike at Iarnród Éireann.
The industrial action, which would have affected some 160,000 passengers, was called off early yesterday following lengthy talks at the LRC between management at Iarnród Éireann, the National Bus and Rail Union and Siptu.
As part of the deal management is to withdraw pay cuts of between 1.7 and 6 per cent for three weeks to allow for a ballot on the LRC proposals.
The company had unilaterally introduced temporary pay cuts on Sunday of last week as part of a controversial cost-saving initiative. The pay cuts were scheduled to remain in force for 28 months.
The LRC proposals say the deal on the table “represents its final attempt” to secure agreement between the parties, and that “no further progress at negotiation level is possible”. It adds that the unions “agree with its assessment” on this.
‘Counterproductive’
Owen Reidy of Siptu, which represents 1,900 of the company’s 3,767 employees, said it would be “counterproductive” to issue a recommendation of acceptance or rejection to members before they go to ballot.
“We’re going to have some regional meetings . . . to explain how we got there, and allow them to sleep on it and make an informed choice.
“We don’t want to be accused of forcing something down people’s throats. We will be saying that we think we have made progress on some fundamental issues for us and we want them to strongly consider this.”
If the deal is accepted the pay cuts will be implemented for a 25-month period.
There will be regular meetings between the stakeholders to find non-payroll savings, which will then be off-set against the 25 months.
