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LUAS SERVICES HAVE once again been shut down today, marking the 11th day of strikes since a dispute between staff and management burst out into the open at the beginning of the year.
Over the months there have been claims and counter-claims from both sides of the dispute. There have been losses of wages for striking workers and losses of revenue for operating company Transdev.
However, as the months have ground on, both sides have dug their heels in and the dispute has become increasingly intractable as the public becomes more and more frustrated.
Siptu has served notice of more stoppages throughout June, while Transdev has hinted at the possibility that workers could be laid off if the dispute isn’t resolved.
With things seemingly getting worse as the months pass, are we in any way near a resolution?
Where we’re at
Transdev says that it will only engage in further negotiations with Luas drivers and Siptu if there is a reasonable basis for them to do so.
In a statement on Wednesday, CEO Gerry Madden said that there was “no basis for any third party intervention or for direct discussions” while the drivers maintained their current position.
The drivers overwhelmingly rejected a proposed deal reached at the Workplace Relations Commission in March, with over 99% of those balloted voting against it.
Transdev has since removed that deal from the table, saying that the longer the strikes go on the less money it will have to offer up as a solution.
Transdev is fined €100,000 for breach of contract for each day it fails to run the Luas service, bringing the total amount lost to date to €1,100,000 (although some of this is offset by not having to pay the workers’ wages for these days or their yearly bonus).
So while Transdev says that it will only offer less than the WRC deal, Siptu and the drivers are still looking for more – and therein lies the seemingly unsolvable nature of the dispute.
Diminishing pot
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One this afternoon, Gerry Madden said that if the drivers were to come forward with a reasonable solution, talks could continue.
“The pot that I have to play with to reward them diminishes with every strike,” he said.
If they were genuinely coming into a space where they recognise that’s the range that and we can negotiate in and they’ve got some ideas about productivity – that would be welcome.
Madden also said that the laying off of drivers was “signposted” as one of the issues in the future, and that he would be meeting Transdev’s legal team on Monday to “explore what means” the company had to resolve the dispute.
“However, what we’ll try to do is use all of the conventional methods to find a resolution so we’re not looking at that but the situation changes on a day to day, week to week basis,” he said.
Speaking this morning on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Siptu Divisional Organiser Owen Reidy said that Transdev had cut off negotiations 19 days ago and that it seemed like the company “don’t want to negotiate”.
“Since that time they have spent their time cutting the pay of staff by 10%, threatening to take people off the payroll, forcing people to work through their breaks and not facilitating people with their annual leave,” said Reidy.
Reidy said accepting the WRC proposals was not an option and that accepting any lower offer “was not going to happen”.
“It seems Transdev after 19 days of cutting off the talks, don’t want to negotiate,” he said.
And I don’t know if they want to try to humiliate or force their own employees into submission, but that won’t happen.
So Transdev says it will only agree to talks if there is a reasonable basis to do so, while Siptu says it will only engage if Transdev are willing to move closer to the drivers’ demands.
But as things stand there are further strikes scheduled for later on this month as well more stoppages in June. With no talks scheduled, it’s getting harder and harder to see how this all will end.
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So before this drivers were prosecuted and fined because it with not safe to practice this, now it’s ok
@James J Mc Ardle: I was thinking the same.
@James J Mc Ardle: not because of delays its a shortage of drivers in the country wouldn’t be listening to ffg
@James J Mc Ardle: Absolutely beyond a joke, told for years go over your hours is not safe, don’t drive tired you need minimum rest and if you don’t you’re gonna get fined and points on your licence, now sure its grand we need u now and everything we said before doesn’t count! Joke Gov/RSA are!
@Philip Mckenna: It’s not so black and white. It doesn’t suddenly go from very dangerous to perfectly safe at a fixed number of hours per week. The original limit would have been set to minimise (not eliminate) accidents due to fatigue. That risk has to be balanced against the risk of food and medical supply shortages.
@James J Mc Ardle: exactly, if an accident happens due to this relaxation of the Safety rules, sue the RSA.
@Ian James Burgess: it clearly states that health and safety still applies, drivers are still not allowed drive if fatigued.
@Paul Clancy: how do we measure fatigue??
@Paul Clancy: and how will that work if the driver tells their boss they’re going home because they are tired
@Philip Mckenna: as a doctor I feel ya. There are times I’ve been in work where I’m so exhausted from brutal never ending shifts that I feel unsafe. But if we don’t turn up then the team is down a doctor…this derogation of essential workers needs to stop.
@Mjhint: with a ruler dummy.
@SJF: getting 150k a year helps
@Jason Healy: not fat. Fatigue. You’re measuring the wrong thing. The luv ah jaysus.
@Mjhint: ah right. Wrong thread sorry. I’ll put back on my pants…
Making the people that do show up work harder and longer is not the answer. On any industry
@Brian Sherry: there’s a shortage of drivers due to backlogs, lengthened journeys due to vat changes and brexit. What’s your short-term solution?
@Hugh Morris: allow positive covid drivers with little or no symptoms to work.
@Hugh Morris: pay a proper base level wage, pay proper over time for hours above 45 hours, give time proper time off for hours worked not annual leave based time off, pay drivers for taking a day to do Cpc training or pay for the training, The list is endless but time and time again we see haulage association members becoming TDS and councillors and blocking any such fare wage proposals. The price of rent in Ireland is one of the many causes for European drivers heading home as they are finding the wages offered at home are as good as it is here but the cost of living; food, rent etc is much cheaper. This is a short time measure but seems an over reach and could lead to a serious accident with a hgv. An extra 25 hours driving over a two week cycle is madness. Better to fast track the modules of training leading up to a test, Cpc training modules etc. To many of these modules are useless and repetitive. Cost of getting a hgv licence has risen from 1000€ to nearly 2100€, who can afford that? Only in Oct it was said there wasn’t a shortage?
@Epgenetics29 Declan Christoph: Havent done a cpc that wasn’t absolutely pointless and I have to pay a fee and lose a days wage for the privilege!
@OConnelj: good thing drivers don’t interact with anyone during the course of work. Only the warehouse at the start, the customer at the end and every time they need to fuel.
Great solution there!
@Philip Mckenna: So repeating the same subjects every 5 years with nothing new added as the legislation hardly ever changes is ok?
It’s like sending kids to school and they repeat the same subjects over and over.
Either it’s safe or not. If it’s safe for all road users for these drivers to work under these conditions, why was it changed in the past.
@TrollsRrealpeople2: Nothing is either “safe or it’s not” everything carries a certain level of risk. For example, define safe? No accidents on the road? Or below a certain number? If you’re going to say it’s either safe or it’s not, then you have to define “safe”. And if you make no changes to the driving hours, what about the risk of food and medical shortages?
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Well when we are fined on the side of the road or in court we are given a lecture about how unsafe it is for driving over our hours and we have to listen to this $hit.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: You look at the reason why the number of hours we’re changed in the first place. Was it to prevent those doing the job from making loads of cash or was it to reduce fatigue on the driver, which in turn reduced the risk of an incident. (Make it safer) As for the other issue. We’ve a defence force with plenty of qualified HGV drivers. Get them delivering. Safety must be the priority.
Not only putting the drivers at risk but every other road user as well. Really playing dangerous games with this.
Outrageous that any body with the word ‘Safety’ in its name would countenance this. 56 hours a week is 8 hours driving for every day of the week. Try it some time and tell me that you’re not falling asleep at the wheel by day 3.
If you listen carefully you can hear the clink of magnets been removed up & down the country
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: very good :)
The extra few hours won’t make much difference. I for one won’t be doing those hours.!! Not for the sh!£e pay that’s out there. Some drivers are stretched to the maximum as it is. Bring the wages back to a good standard..
@Mark G: deal with it
@Hugh Morris: Have you ever drove a truck ? Worked 15 hour days ? Early starts 1am overnight trunking etc, Or the fact that the people who enforce/make the rules work a 40hr week mostly Monday to Friday.
Then there is the pay and conditions which has being eroded over the last 14 years since the recession, Big named companies well known in Ireland hiring drivers via agency zero hour contracts.
No OT or shift allowance weekend etc just a flat rate of pay, Lads I know left the industry 10 years ago, And haven’t looked back.
@Dave Byrne: yes
@Hugh Morris: So you are happy to work extra hours, And as another poster mentioned get fined for going over hours last week but when the derogation kicks in it’s OK.
@Dave Byrne: make hay while the sun shines
So should any driver who has been done in the past be exonerated now that its deemed not so dangerous anymore
That has to be one of the most ridiculous moves I’ve heard of in ages. Last week they would be prosecuted for doing it, now they are allowed do it. They need to find another way around this.
@Joe_X: Isn’t that how law changes generally work? i.e. previously something was not allowed/allowed but since the change, it is/isn’t?
@OnlyHereForTheComments: yes, but are changes to the laws usually to make things safer for those the law is directed at, and those around them, In this case, the drivers and the other road users about them. This just seems like a retroactive step to me.
Change the regulations when it suits.
Ah so it’s time to put her on the magic so and all legal. Wink wink nudge nudge. I presume the extra hours will be double time.
Try to explain to the French man on the side of the road if France when you’re stopped for tacho check. Try to tell him that rsa said I’ll be grand with those reduced breaks.
@Darek Warzecha: I’d imagine it’s just internal haulage.
The option of volunteer Army drivers has not been mentioned, or retired drivers, to increase supply without increasing the risk to lives and property.
@John Colgan: Army drivers would need a digi card and tbe retired lads wouldn’t bother getting back into an industry,Were the T&C have gone downhill.
have your say