Bus Éireann workers are staging a protest in Dublin today against the Government's plans for the company under decentralisation.
Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) are concerned that the Government's move could be detrimental to their pension scheme.
According to the union, civil servants with non-contributory pensions who transfer into Bus Éireann must join CIÉ's superannuation scheme with no contribution for past service will transfer between entities.
The TSSA estimated that this will cost €500,000 per person per transfer.
The union said that ten of the existing 13 applications for the 80 available decentralised posts are civil servants.
The Irish secretary of the TSSA, Mr Roger Hannon, said the move "could affect thousands of salaried staffs across the CIÉ group of companies, not just those decentralised post in Bus Éireann."
"This could represent a colossal blackhole in the finances of the decentralisation project," he added.
"It is clear that there is no business plan for the move to Mitchelstown and the service Bus Éireann gives to the travelling puiblic and tourists could be damaged by this political interference," Mr Colm Jordan a TSSA Organiser said.
The TSSA also added that Bus Éireann staff are currently one of the most dencetralised in the country, with 85 per cent of staff outside Dublin and 21 per cent staff already in Cork.
