State will not ‘open chequebook’ to end Dublin Bus dispute

The Minister for Transport has reiterated that the Government will not be opening its chequebook to resolve the industrial dispute at Dublin Bus, which has now resulted in four days of strikes.

With Dublin Bus services in the capital halted again yesterday, Shane Ross insisted it was a matter for management at the State-owned transport company and unions representing staff to "settle the issue".

A further 48-hour work stoppage is scheduled to take place next Friday and Saturday, with another two-day strike planned for the following week as part of the dispute over pay. Another 11 days of strikes have been announced for October.

About 400,000 Dublin Bus passengers are being affected on each day of the strikes. Dublin Bus says the stoppages have cost it about €4 million so far. Both management and unions have said they are available for talks to resolve the dispute.

However, there are no signs of any intervention to bring the parties to the negotiating table.

‘Counter-productive’

The Minister said it would be “wrong and counter-productive” to make a “high-profile intervention”. Mr Ross urged unions and management to get together as quickly as possible for talks, but added that the Government would not be “opening the chequebook for them”.

He said he was monitoring the situation on an hourly basis, but said it was up to both sides in the dispute to “settle the issue”.

Mr Ross said he had great empathy for commuters and businesses affected by the ongoing strike action, and had “enormous regret” about the situation.

Meanwhile Mr Ross said that a move to open the bus lanes to traffic on the days of bus strikes was still under consideration by his department.

However, he warned that the advice he was receiving, particularly from the Road Safety Authority, was that such a move might have serious safety issues.

“There would be safety issues, particularly for ambulances and fire services, and for cyclists as well. I’m not ruling it out. I’d love to do it, but the advice I’m getting is there are serious safety issues and I have to take those into account.”

Increases over three years

Unions are seeking increases of 15 per cent over three years as well as payment of a 6 per cent rise dating back to a national wage deal in 2008.

Bus drivers who are members of the National Bus and Rail Union are also looking for pay parity with tram drivers on the Luas light rail system, who secured an 18 per cent rise last June following a lengthy dispute.

Dublin Bus has said it cannot afford to pay flat increases of any more than the 8.2 per cent over three years recommended several weeks ago by the Labour Court but which was rejected by staff.

It has said it would be willing to discuss higher increases but that they would have to be linked to productivity measures. Unions have said they would discuss productivity but only after they received a higher flat rate increase.