SIPTU accepts Iarnrod Eireann package

The SIPTU/Iarnrod Eireann agreement hammered out in the early hours of yesterday morning is a productivity agreement and as such does not breach the conditions of the Partnership for Progress (PFP), Mr Tony Tobin, a SIPTU negotiator has said.

Mr Tobin refused to reveal details of the final Iarnrod Eireann offer which formed the basis of the agreement, saying its final form wasn't even a typed sheet and would have to be formally compiled and circulated to the SIPTU membership for ratification.

It is understood, however, that elements of the overall package include regrading payments, dropping the company's insistence on night work and payments for working public holidays, as well as improving arrangements for work rostering. An earlier package with an overall increase of around 20 per cent was rejected by SIPTU. The final package is thought to represent an increase of around 35 per cent.

The 680 lineworkers at the centre of the dispute currently earn a basic wage of between £210 and £227 per week. With extensive overtime, this can rise to between £15,000 and £20,000 per annum.

A strike by the lineworkers last March is said to have cost up to £18 million to business, according to the Small Firms Association.

As the agreement was reached just three hours before strike notice expired, the SIPTU delegation of 27, which had been negotiating in a Dublin Hotel, was obliged to spend the following few hours attempting to contact its members around the country to cancel arrangements which had been underway for picketing of Iarnrod Eireann depots.

Mr Tobin said the agreement would be circulated to members over the next three weeks and voting would take place around the country. The negotiating team would be recommending acceptance, he added. He also paid tribute to the management team which had also put in long hours in working out an acceptable settlement.

"I am pleased with the agreement because I believe we have a good deal," he said. "We have avoided a considerable disruption to the public which would have taken place if the strike had gone ahead."

Had the strike gone ahead the likely effect of pickets on train stations this morning would have led to widespread disruption with the possibility of lines being closed.

Late last week Iarnrod Eireann warned that without the lineworkers, trains would initially be forced to travel more slowly and then to withdraw from some lines completely. A spokesman for the company said the dispute had the potential to be more disruptive than the current ILDA dispute and could have closed the entire network within a week.