Drivers on the Luas tram line in Dublin are to take further strike action to disrupt services on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday in a dispute over pay.
Luas operator Transdev said that in addition to stopping the tram service on Easter weekend, drivers planned to stop work next Tuesday, March 8th and on St Patricks Day.
This was in addition to the earlier dates of Thursday February 11th and Friday February 12th, Thursday February 18th and Friday February 19th 2016.
The drivers have held two recent strikes over pay. They have sought increases of between 8 and 53 per cent as well as improvements in their conditions of employment.
Management has proposed increases in the region of one to three per cent, linked to productivity.
Transdev managing director Gerry Madden said: "Siptu are not just threatening the company with their unrealistic pay claims but are now prepared to jeopardise the Irish economy and Irish jobs. The state has made great plans for the centenary of 1916 and transport is a vital part of those plans."
Transdev said it had stated its willingness to attend the Workplace Relations Commission and was disappointed the invitation had to be withdrawn because of last week’s unofficial action by some Luas drivers.
Siptu said there was a highly dysfunctional relationship between many Luas staff and management.
The union said it had held talks on Tuesday with all four grades of staff in the company on a strategy to facilitate new talks to resolve the current dispute.
Drivers were prepared to suspend their work to rule and call off the strike planned for March 8th but not for St Patrick’s Day. They wanted to press ahead with serving strike notice for Easter immediately because of the requirement on them to give 21 days warning of industrial action, the union said.
It said Luas revenue protection officers and supervisors had suspended their work to rule and were prepared to defer the March 8th action but not the 17th. They had no position on strikes over Easter.
Siptu said traffic supervisors were not prepared to suspend their work to rule but were prepared to defer the March 8th strike . However they were not willing to cancel the St Patrick’s Day stoppage.
The union said it put these various proposals to the Workplace Relations Commission on Wednesday morning. However, the commission said it did not consider the proposals to constitute normal industrial relations and would not convene talks with effectively a gun to its head.
Separately, drivers on the Dart rail service who are members of Siptu voted unanimously in favour of strike action if the company attempts to introduce rosters to provide a service every 10 minutes.
Introducing new rosters, as planned, from Sunday, April 10th was a “deeply unfortunate and provocative move”, said Siptu organiser Paul Cullen.
“The failure of the company to effectively engage in such productivity discussions resulted in industrial action by all train drivers in Irish Rail during October and November 2015.”
Mr Cullen said members were “deeply disappointed” that management of Irish Rail seemed “intent on provoking further conflict with workers”.
“This is despite the Labour Court proposing a negotiation process which aims to create a forum where solutions can be found to productivity issues at the company.”