There is a renewed threat to train services next Sunday, when Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association members meet to review their attitude to new rosters and work practices.
Iarnrod Eireann accepts that if the majority of the 123 drivers turn up for the ILDA's extraordinary general meeting in Dublin, there will be "significant disruption" to services.
This is the second time in two weeks that the ILDA has called such a meeting to express opposition to a new annualised hours agreement negotiated with the company by SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Union. The new rosters come into operation from Sunday and new pay arrangements are already in place. Normal practice for drivers rostered to work Sundays is to find a replacement if they wish to be off. However, ILDA has never formally accepted this arrangement.
An Iarnrod Eireann spokesman declined yesterday to say what action management would take if large-scale absenteeism occurred. However, company sources said the option of pursuing ILDA and its members in the courts for financial losses remained open.
The ILDA executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said members remained as opposed as ever to the "new deal for locomotive drivers" negotiated by the company with the other rail unions.
It offered "no real vision" and had been found unsafe by an international safety expert retained by the ILDA, Mr Peter Rayner.
When ILDA deferred a threat of mass resignations on June 4th, Mr Ogle said it was on the basis that the "two-week breathing space" would allow for a negotiated settlement.
He called for immediate third-party intervention "to avert a similar crisis" on Sunday.