Talks resume today to ensure a full DART service is available next week. It is understood there is a shortfall of six drivers and, without agreement on rest-day cover, up to 10 per cent of the DART's 80,000 commuters will have to find alternative transport. Services will be hardest hit during peak-hour periods if the problem is not resolved.
Senior Iarnrod Eireann management and union leaders met yesterday to discuss the situation and will resume talks this morning. Negotiators were reluctant to comment, beyond saying the situation was extremely difficult.
Enough drivers have been found to fill gaps in the Bray depot roster, but there is still a reluctance by drivers in Fairview to work rest days in the coming week. There are currently 61 drivers, but the new rosters require about 80. Seven trainees will graduate next month and a further 12 in May.
The company says it only agreed to introduce a five-day working week on the basis that existing drivers provide rest-day cover while extra drivers were trained. The unions say no written commitments were given, and no specific levels of cover were agreed. The deadline for resolving the dispute is Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association executive is meeting tomorrow to discuss its response to the joint Labour Court-Labour Relations Commission report on last summer's 10-week dispute on mainline services.
The report offered little comfort to the ILDA executive, which is unlikely to take on board the suggestion that members embrace the "New Deal for Locomotive Drivers" negotiated with SIPTU and the NBRU. This would mean abandoning its current policy to work the deal under protest.