DART services are expected to be severely disrupted today as 15 out of 17 drivers entitled to a rest day have refused to work. This is about a third of the number normally at work on Saturdays. A reduced service is also expected tomorrow.
Yesterday, 17 trains were cancelled because of the dispute over rest day working, compared with 20 on Thursday. The human resources manager of Iarnrod Eireann, Mr John Keenan, said the fact that there were no services on Christmas Day or St Stephen's Day, and that there would only be a Saturday level of services for the rest of next week would ease pressure on schedules. However he warned that serious disruption would return on January 2nd if a solution to the dispute was not found in the meantime.
There was some progress in talks between the company and its unions, SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Union, yesterday evening. Mr Keenan said the unions "gave a qualified acceptance that rest day cover was implicit in the implementation of the new agreement, as it was with that for mainline drivers". On behalf of the company he withdrew an earlier management claim that the unions had been seeking bonus payments for DART drivers who worked their rest days.
The company is also understood to have told the unions it will review the new agreement for five-day working if drivers continue with their refusal to provide rest day cover.
SIPTU branch secretary Mr Liam Tobin accepted rest day cover was implicit in the new arrangements but he added that "at no time did the company sit down with us to discuss details of the rest day cover, as they did on mainline services". He said: "I asked management today what interim period they wanted for DART drivers to provide cover. They said May 31st, 2001 and that was the first time a specific date was mentioned."
The unions are now reporting back to their members to consult them over how best to resolve the dispute. They are expected to resume discussions with management over the Christmas period.
The situation may be complicated by a row about starting rates for new DART drivers. Existing drivers were paid £8,000 compensation each to allow direct recruitment of new drivers who will earn 90 per cent of the current drivers' top rate. They also have a lower starting rate of £20,500 and take six years to reach the top of the reduced pay scale.
The DART rows over pay scales and rest day working could also destabilise mainline services. Drivers at Dublin's Connolly depot have said they will not work new rosters on the Maynooth outer suburban line due to begin in mid-January. They believe that the "New Deal for DART Drivers" is better than the "New Deal for Locomotive Drivers" negotiated at the start of the year.
The executive secretary of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association, Mr Brendan Ogle, said yesterday his members' decision not to work rest days was now proving well founded. Mainline drivers were seeing DART drivers receive better terms and would want their own agreement revisited. Connolly drivers were only the first of many who would be expressing their disatisfaction with the "New Deal for Locomotive Drivers".