The executive of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' association, (ILDA) yesterday decided against recommending that drivers return to work this morning, under the terms of the Labour Court/Labour Relations Commission initiative .
The Labour Court/LRC had offered to investigate the causes of the current dispute, pending a return to work of all drivers by this morning.
However, at a meeting in Tullamore yesterday, the ILDA executive instead approved a new position paper. The paper covers conditions under which its drivers would return to work.
The paper, entitled Possible Framework of a Settlement, was circulated to the Labour Court/ LRC, the Minister for Transport, Ms O'Rourke, and Iarnrod Eireann at the weekend. It is to be put to ILDA members at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin this afternoon.
The executive secretary of ILDA, Mr Brendan Ogle, has insisted that this action does not rule out a return to work at a future date under a new LRC/ Labour Court initiative.
The ILDA position paper says there are three primary areas of concern to the drivers. These are recognition of the ILDA trade union, safety and industrial relations.
The paper asserts that the issue of recognition is not a condition for return to work as this is being pursued separately in the courts. ILDA says the issue of safety must be addressed now and that workers must not be asked to work the new rosters before the safety issue is resolved.
In this respect, the ILDA position paper proposes:
All locomotive drivers must be full-time, as the development of part-time drivers is incompatible with passenger safety.
The 72-week training period for drivers remain in force until the review of driver-training, currently taking place in the context of the addington/Ladbroke Grove rail crash, is complete.
Every roster must contain a standard maximum continuous driving time. ILDA's recommendation is that the standard should be three hours followed by a 20-minute break.
Maximum working day to be no longer than nine hours, and ILDA recommends that each nine-hour shift incorporate two 30-minute breaks.
ILDA also wants to see the immediate implementation of a five-person safety committee to publish a safety report every six months.
In terms of industrial relations, ILDA says:
All existing drivers must enjoy the same hourly rate of pay, with premium payments for Sundays and public holidays.
All existing conditions of employment not specifically dealt with in the new deal, for example, existing seniority entitlements, promotion and transfer agreements, should remain in force.
The company will guarantee that there will be no legal or disciplinary action or any form of discrimination or victimisation against any train-driver.
The position paper was submitted by Mr Ogle to Mr Kieran Mulvey, Chairman of the Labour Relations Committee, on Friday. Mr Ogle said yesterday he accepted that agreement on the proposals was a matter for Iarnrod Eireann, rather than the LRC/ Labour Court.
Mr Ogle further acknowledged that the new position paper would overturn the existing agreement reached between Iarnrod Eireann and SIPTU and NBRU trade unions.
A spokesman for the LRC confirmed that it had received the position paper but added that it was still seeking a response to the initiative it announced last week.
A spokesman for Irish Rail dismissed the position paper as a further attempt to renegotiate the Labour Court/LRC initiative.
The spokesman reiterated that Iarnrod Eireann had agreed to co-operate fully with the proposed investigation of the dispute. However, he said, this clearly involved members of ILDA returning to work the new roster by this morning.
In addition to its position paper, ILDA also sought clarification of several issues, particularly on whether its members would be obliged to work rosters which included nine-hour working. These questions were the subject of a reply from the LRC/Labour Court which ILDA said it received at 10.01 p.m. on Saturday night.
Yesterday Mr Ogle told reporters that the prevailing mood was that the replies formed an insufficient basis for a recommendation to return to work.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Mr Ogle said the executive would hold a meeting in Dublin today at which both the new position paper and the Labour Court/LRC initiative would be put to the members.
