Thousands of commuters face massive disruption to their home journeys on Friday, October 4th, if large numbers of Dublin Bus, train and DART drivers join that afternoon's industrial protest in support of redundant workers at Irish Glass Bottle and Peerless Rugs.
Growing anger was expressed yesterday by workers' leaders over warnings issued by IBEC, the employers' body, to the effect that unions could face legal action, and individual employees might be disciplined by their employers.
IBEC's director of industrial relations, Mr Brendan McGinty, "put the trade union movement on notice" that unless they took measures to contain industrial action, they might find themselves in breach of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. In that event, employers would reserve the right to take action on foot of any loss or disruption that might result, he said. In addition, employees could face the loss of pay and individuals could be liable to disciplinary measures in line with company procedures, said Mr McGinty. "It's a total overreaction," he said, "and won't do anyone any good."
The IBEC director's assertions brought sharp responses from the craft union TEEU, and SIPTU, two of the four unions representing the bottle-plant workers.
Mr Eamon Devoy, the TEEU's assistant general secretary, in a lunchtime interview on RTÉ, insisted the planned half-day protest was not industrial action by the unions. It would represent the response of individual workers to an invitation from the various trade union councils to show solidarity with the plight of their redundant colleagues.
Later, SIPTU vice-president Mr Jack O'Connor said IBEC clearly felt obliged to try to offer some excuse for "the minority of employers" who failed to discharge their obligations to long-serving employees.
The scheduled half-day protest is over management refusal to pay the redundancy terms recommended by the Labour Court. The court recommended that the 360 workers at the Ardagh-owned bottle plant at Ringsend, Dublin, should get five weeks' redundancy, plus their statutory entitlements, when the plant closed in early July. The 60 Athy-based Peerless workers have still to get the three weeks' redundancy plus statutory severance terms recommended by the Labour Court in July 2001.
The protest is supported by the four IGB unions - UCATT and BATU, as well as SIPTU and TEEU.
But the unions, conscious of the provisions of the 1990 Act, are careful to portray the scheduled half-day as a "protest" by individual members, rather than collective industrial action that could be deemed "unofficial".
Many bus drivers, particularly in Ringsend, where Dublin Bus has a depot, are believed to be anxious to show solidarity with the IGB bottle-plant workers.