Taxi drivers are to hold a protest at Dublin Airport next week as part of a Siptu campaign aimed at establishing an independent board where drivers can appeal decisions by the Taxi Regulator.
At the moment, taxi drivers have no institutional means of addressing grievances.
A Siptu source said taxis taking part in the action on Monday morning will drop passengers at the airport as normal but will then not pick up passengers at arrivals. He said it is expected drivers who are not members of Siptu will follow suit.
The protest is being staged from 7.00am to 11.00am to target business passengers arriving in Dublin, he said.
Representatives of the three main taxi unions - the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, the National Taxi Drivers' Union and Siptu - have been lobbying the Department of Transport to consider introducing an appeals process.
Sitpu branch organiser Jerry Brennan said drivers were angry that they had no mechanism under legislation to appeal decisions by the regulator despite talks with two successive ministers for transport.
He said the protest was originally planned for earlier this month but was postponed following representations to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport.
“While we welcome the interest of the Committee it appears that there will be no change in Government policy,” he said. “This leaves our members in the position that, unlike other workers, they have no access to the Rights Commissioner Service, the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court.”
The sole recourse for drivers who wish to appeal is the advisory council to the Commission for Taxi Regulation. “There is no requirement on the regulator to take that advice. We are seeking an independent appeals board that will be able to hear appeals from decisions of the regulator,” he said.
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