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SIPTU HAS SAID that all-out strike action is “seriously on the agenda” for Luas workers following yesterday’s escalation of the transport dispute.
Transdev yesterday put the entire staff of the Luas on protective notice, saying that future employment would be on a day-to-day basis.
Protective notice is essentially when a company warns staff that their jobs are in jeopardy unless something changes within the company in terms of finance or the viability of people’s employment.
The notice follows on from a number of days of industrial action which shut down the tram service by Luas workers over the past two months in an ever-escalating row over pay and workers’ conditions that shows no sign of letting off.
Workers overwhelmingly rejected a deal that was hammered out at the Workplace Relations Commision in the run up to Easter which would have seen pay increases of up to 18%.
Now, however, Transdev has significantly reduced that offer, saying that workers have until Sunday to accept a lower pay deal.
It has also warned workers that in the future anyone involved in industrial action may have their wages docked to offset the losses incurred.
The next step
Speaking this morning on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Siptu divisional organiser Owen Reidy said that Transdev was threatening the workers who had engaged in “legal, lawful dispute”.
Reidy also said that following the serving of protective notice, workers would have to “consider very carefully” what their next step was.
“What we’re not going to do is fall into some sort of potential trap… where we have some knee-jerk reaction – we’ll consider this carefully,” he said.
When asked about the prospect of workers shutting down the service entirely and goin going all-out strike, Reidy said that a “considered decision” would be made after discussions but that it was something “that is seriously on the agenda”.
Reidy also reiterated earlier calls for the Transport Minister and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (who own the railway lines upon which the service operates) to get involved in the dispute and condemn the “unprecedented action” taken by Transdev.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland has previously stated that it would not be getting involved in the dispute due to it having awarded the contract to run the service to private company Transdev.
It said that Transdev ran the service and it getting involved would represent a conflict of interest.
Transdev has said that the lower pay deal it offered and action that it is taking “reflects the reduced financial resources available to the company”.
The company also said that “Luas customers and the public must be at the forefront of how the dispute is resolved” going forward.
TheJournal.ie has contacted the Transport Minister for comment.
So what if its a different time in the UK. We do enty of business with countries in different timezones. Some countries even have different timezones with in the one country so again it makes no difference if we’re on a different time to NI. I’d personally prefer to stay on summer time all year but Im not that pushed. Just as long as we get rid of changing the clocks.
Scrap it outdated and doesn’t serve a purpose anymore.
Continue with changing the clocks.
Anyone with toddlers will know, it’s an absolute nightmare trying to adjust their sleeping patterns after the time change. Also it’s preferable to have more daylight in the evening available to school kids. Not to mention the fact that roads would be safer because volumes of traffic increase towards evening.
@Paraic: I disagree. However, if we stay on summertime then when winter rolls around it won’t get bright until close to 10am which means kids walking to school in the dark. If this has to change then remaining on wintertime is the only option so it’s not dark when the kids are going to school and coming home from school.
@Ian Breathnach: kids already go to school on the dark as the hour time difference means it gets bright close to 9. Unless you live next door to the school your kids go to school in the dark in winter.
@Dave O Keeffe: The vast majority of kids live within 10 to 15 minutes of their school. It’s bright by 8.50am in the depths or the winter.
What time is it?
It’s about time
Stop. Hammer time…
This was tried before and people had a problem that it was dark at 9am when children were heading off to school.
@Aine O Connor: how did people manage 100 years ago when the time was changed and lighting wasn’t as good?
@Aine O Connor: indeed it was. It happened in 1969. It was changed back in 1970 for the very reasons you stated.
Groundhog day, we keep revisiting this time when socialists with fanciful ideas thinks a keynote speech awaiting by the world and worthy of flying his royal bum in a learjet to go 100 miles up the road.
Wish there was an ‘I’d like us to consider moving to Central European Summer Time’ box?
If we stay on winter time we will still get bright evenings but we wont have really dark mornings. Its hard enough to get out of bed and don’t think its safe to bring kids to school in the dark.
I look forward to the time change after Christmas. Can we change the time before the end of March, like in February or something and make a shorter winter?
Stay on summertime please, we know if the morning is dark it will get brighter but once it’s dark in the evening that’s it!! Most children are driven to school anyway and in urban areas they have street lights. We’ll manage just fine if UK is on different time zone to us, most of Europe is and we do business with them!!
@Teresa Birney Codd: finally someone talking sense
@Teresa Birney Codd: finally someone talking sense!!!
It’s cheeko time ….
What’s time to a goat ?
All those almanacs being printed right now…
It seems the problem is simply the change. Statistics of heart attacks make a clear jump upward the few days every year after changing to summertime when we suddenly have to awake and get up an hour earlier.
Some would claim that it evens itself out in the autumn when we are allowed to sleep an hour more, as the same heart attack statistics show less heart attacks that and following few mornings. For the ones that are killed by the time change in the spring it was tough luck as nobody told them and for the saved in the autumn just pure luck.
The take awayis that if we sleep too few hours not only can we become grumpy but also suddenly die from it.
Moreover both Thatcher and Ron Reagan bragged that 4 hours sleep was enough. Both ended their days without knowing what was going on, in Alzheimer’s. Now shown to be aggravated by too few hours of sleep.
have your say