STRIKE action by the National Bus and Rail Union and the implementation of a viability plan by Bus Eireann have both been deferred for 48 hours, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Justice Kelly set today for the hearing of a case taken by the union which is challenging Bus Eireann's decision to implement the plan due to have been introduced yesterday. Bus workers are also seeking a perpetual injunction.
The union claims the company was not entitled as a matter of law to alter conditions of service of members without union agreement.
Mr Rory Brady SC, for the 400 members of the union and two named drivers, said the case related to the implementation of changes in Bus Eireann which would affect certain statutory rights of his clients.
He said it had been expected the viability plan would be implemented that day against a background of industrial action. The case was urgent from the public interest point of view.
Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, for Bus Eireann, said that in view of the legal action, the company had deferred the implementation of the plan for 48 hours. He said his clients had to make enormous efforts to defer the plan. The union had served strike notice but that had also been deferred.
Mr Justice Kelly said a case listed for tomorrow was not going ahead and he would put the NBRU's case in for then.
The NBRU was granted leave to seek a judicial review of Bus Eireann's decision last Monday week. It was submitted the company was not entitled to engage in any alteration or variation of conditions of service of those members of the NRU transferred from CIE to Bus Eireann.