There will be no SIPTU picket on Dublin's toll bridges today and tomorrow while the Labour Court attempts to settle the two-week-long strike.
National Toll Roads and the union are refraining from comment during the court's deliberations. Yesterday, the SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Mick Halpin, and NTR's chief executive, Mr Jim Barry, restricted their comments to welcoming the court's intervention and promising their full co-operation.
Last month the court decided that SIPTU's claim for £8 an hour for 130 members on the East Link and West Link bridges was in breach of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).
The gap between the two sides is large, but not insurmountable. The company's last offer was £7.76 an hour at the top of the scale, but this included all increases due under the PPF. SIPTU wants the £8 before the last three phases of the PPF (including April's 2 per cent cost-of-living review) are taken into account.
The company has demonstrated that it is willing to suffer significant losses in revenue - up to 18 per cent - rather than concede to union demands. SIPTU had expected the company to make concessions rather than suffer such losses. It also underestimated the capacity of management to cope with toll bridge traffic on an emergency basis.
The company has accused SIPTU of being in breach of the PPF's industrial peace clause and has sought the intervention of the National Implementation Body. So far this has not happened, but if the strike resumes after tomorrow the NIB is more likely to intervene.
It is likely that SIPTU will ballot its members on the Labour Court proposals before pickets resume.