The strike which has disrupted rail services for the past 10 weeks will finally end next Monday. Members of The Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA) are to return to work "under protest", pending the outcome of a review of the issues they raised by the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission. This review is to be completed over the next three months.
The decision by the ILDA to return to work is welcome, if long overdue. It represents an embarrassing retreat for the organisation. A fortnight ago it did not accept the terms of an unprecedented intervention by the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission when they were first made. Yesterday, on the steps of the Labour Court, the ILDA executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said that the drivers would, after all, accept the terms and return to work, while the issues they raised were investigated.
From the start the ILDA's tactics have been highly questionable; it has alienated the travelling public and left Iarnrod Eireann with no option but to dig in its heels. The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, took the correct stance in deciding not to intervene to try to broker a compromise, while the trade unions in Iarnrod Eireann also remained aloof, having accepted the new rosters.
Against this background, it was only a matter of time before the financial hardship caused by the strike and the lack of any support for its position, led ILDA members to return to work. Service levels will finally return to normal for the travelling public. However, they have faced needless inconvenience and the strike has seriously affected the tourist season in many parts of the State.
Now it is up to the industrial relations machinery to examine the issues involved, including the safety concerns expressed by the ILDA. It would behove all sides to await the outcome of this investigation before engaging in further debate on the issues involved.
While the immediate problem of a disrupted rail service will be solved when the drivers return to work, many of the underlying issues remain. The Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission will no doubt undertake a full and fair examination of the safety issues raised by the drivers in relation to the new rosters. However, the dispute also indicates that there is a group of drivers who do not feel that their interests were well represented by the existing unions recognised by CIE management; if this is not addressed, it creates the potential for further difficulties in future.
Taking a longer-term view, CIE is an organisation which has suffered as a result of under-investment by successive governments in public transport and lack of a clear policy direction. Employees have relied on overtime and other special payments to top up their basic pay and a culture of inflexibility and demarcation has developed. CIE's new chairman, Mr John Lynch, and his management team, thus face the difficult task of trying to map a future for the transport companies under their control at a time when the industrial relations climate will remain difficult. It will require goodwill on both sides to prevent further disputes from flaring up as rail and bus services expand to try to keep pace with a growing level of demand, particularly as the major investments planned in a LUAS and Metro system for Dublin will take some years to complete.