TRAIN DRIVERS in Cork who have been involved in unofficial industrial action since Thursday have said they will return to work from today.
In a statement issued after a meeting yesterday, the drivers said they would go back to work on the basis that they would operate in accordance with current agreements, including flexible working arrangements as set out in Labour Relations Commission proposals last March.
They said maintaining the current impasse would only further discommode the travelling public.
However, Iarnród Éireann said it was adopting a cautious approach to the statement, and would await developments today. A spokesman said the company wanted the drivers to return to work on the basis of full flexibility within their shifts, and for them to co-operate with the training of new staff. The company would not accept a situation where drivers sought to pick which trains to operate within their shifts.
Flexible working has been at the heart of the recent dispute. The company has said that under existing agreements drivers can be required to move from operating one train to another during a shift on the basis of customer need.
However, it is understood that the Cork drivers have argued that under a local agreement the obligation on them to move between duties “as required” only applied in emergency circumstances.
The current dispute began on Thursday after a driver who was rostered to carry out shunting duties refused to drive a train being used to train new personnel. He was removed from the payroll.
Iarnród Éireann has said the withdrawal of co-operation by drivers on flexibility over recent months is aimed at exerting pressure on separate talks between unions and management on reduced working hours.
The Labour Relations Commission in March urged drivers to co-operate with training and to drive normally within their rostered hours while the talks on the reduced working week continued.
The assistant general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, Dermot O’Leary, said last night his understanding was that the drivers in Cork would operate in the same manner as colleagues in other parts of the rail system.
Siptu branch organiser Jackie Pearson said the drivers would present themselves for work and would take up the duties for which they were rostered.
Meanwhile, Siptu said drivers were willing to operate services on the Cork-Dublin and Cork-Cobh lines yesterday but were prevented by the company. Iarnród Éireann said it was clear the drivers were not prepared to co-operate with the agreements on flexibility.
A total of 17 services on routes between Dublin and Cork and Kerry were cancelled yesterday, as were all commuter services in Cork and Kerry.
In their statement the drivers blamed the company for the dispute and restated their support for their colleague who was removed from the payroll.
They argued that the manner in which their colleague was treated “was premeditated and designed to effectively cause a dispute that would have had the potential to create chaos/disruption across the entire rail network”.