Rail travellers may not know if their services will be disrupted on Monday until 8 a.m. on the day.
Serious disruption is possible because of the long-running dispute between Iarnrod Eireann and the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association.
The ILDA is holding an extraordinary general meeting of its members in Dublin tomorrow to discuss the situation. However its executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said last night that members might simply be told of developments to date and left to make their own decisions about what to do next day.
The ILDA faxed the Labour Relations Commission with a request for intervention yesterday. This is thought unlikely given the continuing refusal of the company to recognise the union and enter talks. The company's human resource manager, Mr John Keenan, made clear that legal action would be taken against the ILDA or individual drivers who took disruptive industrial action.
If ILDA members decide, individually or collectively, not to operate the new agreement negotiated by Iarnrod Eireann with SIPTU and the National Bus and Railworkers' Union, the services most affected will be those to the north-east, the northwest, the midlands and the Dublin suburban Arrow service.
The "New Deal for Locomotive Drivers" negotiated with SIPTU and the NBRU provides an opt-out clause and this may be availed of by ILDA members in depots where they form a majority, such as Dundalk, Drogheda, Sligo, Athlone, Westport and Dublin's Inchicore depot.
In a last-minute effort to persuade ILDA members to work normally, the company and its other two unions have agreed to defer new pay patterns based on annualised hours from Monday until June 19th, the same day as new rostering arrangements apply. However the increased pay rates will be applied retrospectively and a special rate will be paid for drivers working under the new agreement this Monday.
Under the old system drivers would be paid £22.50p an hour but drivers accepting the new agreement will receive £35 an hour for Monday working. About a third of drivers, including 55 ILDA members, have already accepted lump sums compensating them for lost overtime earnings. The company expects ILDA drivers to accept the higher rate for Monday as well, thus implicitly accepting the new agreement.
SIPTU rail branch secretary Mr Tony Tobin last night urged drivers to accept what he described as "a fantastic deal". It would see basic pay increase from £14,690 to as much as £29,500 a year, and pensions increase by 65 per cent.
Mr Ogle believes his members will not be influenced by the prospect of extra earnings on Monday when there are fundamental issues of union recognition, safety and compulsory Sunday working at stake.