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FOLLOWING DISCUSSIONS AT the Workplace Relations Commission last night, management at Bus Éireann has agreed to introduce “improved” rosters for its drivers, a union has said.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, Dermot O’Leary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) said that “a vital component” of the dispute was agreeing on rosters across the Bus Éireann network.
In keeping with a Labour Court recommendation earlier this year, a clarification document has been issued to both sides for all issues relating to drivers’ conditions – including an implementation date for all new rosters.
“The problems on the Navan/Kells corridor have been generating quite an amount of press coverage over the last couple of months,” O’Leary said, “With service difficulties for commuters and oppressive anti-family rosters for drivers being the core issues which required to be addressed.
Bus Éireann management have now agreed to implement improved rosters on the Navan service, effective from Sunday next, with nationwide implementation to follow on the 3 December.
Problems in the northeast
Since mid-September services in the northeast, including the Navan-Cavan 109 route corridor, have experienced problems such as buses routinely failing to turn up, services being cancelled with little or no notice, and even drivers taking incorrect routes.
The company blamed the situation on the addition of new rosters and new services together with “a high level of absenteeism”, which prompted the Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty to declare that the situation amounted to an “unofficial labour dispute”.
Doherty said that 299 replacement services had to be drafted in to cover the eastern bus corridor because drivers weren’t showing up for work.
But a number of drivers told TheJournal.ie that the problem isn’t one of absent drivers, but rather one of non-existent buses and unrealistic service demands.
In a statement released last night, Bus Éireann said that last night’s agreement will ensure “cost savings can be achieved” and “assures our commitment to all of our customers and stakeholders at this busy time of the year”.
The clarification document issued to both sides provides for an implementation date of 3 December next for all elements related to the driver grade, which were part of the Labour Court agreement accepted earlier this year.
- With reporting from Cianan Brennan
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Just let private operators run a bus on the route.
@Patrick j Brady: they don’t want those routes OAP and drug addicts with free passes all day, nobody after 6pm, No money.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: The route (109X) is the only public transport link between Cavan/Dublin, was crazy to change it.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh:
If that is the case we are subsidising BE to do it, give that subsidy to a private operation let the state keep whatever fares are collected and put heavy fines for the company if it doesn’t run. You will always have a bus.
@Patrick j Brady: Is that you maggie thatcher in the guise of PJ???…. The company didn’t comply with a WRC ruling, the union objected to it. They brought the issue back to the WRC and the company conceded they were wrong to try force in the rosters. But you make a nonsensical comment when things are worked out as they should be….
Public sector unions are usually fairly strike-ready and militant but the NBRU are the worst. If they were operating in the private sector they would all have either been fired by now or their company would have gone bust
Still no mention of the Cavan -Dublin 109X route changes which used to stop outside the Mater hospital. Now visitors/patients to the hospital have further to walk from Phibsboro and to Lower Dorset Street, where the bus stops are not even marked for the 109X. Badly thought out by Bus Eireann in a bid to justify the company rather than the customers. Putting the route along the M50 was also a stupid thing to do.
@Chris Kirk: is the whole point of fast transit buses not to connect with services in the city? If you get off at Phibsborough you will have any number of buses to take you to where you want to go. The Mater is the general hospital for Dublin’s north central area; I’m sure there are hospitals in Cavan too.
@Darren Bates: There certainly is a general hospital in Cavan but the consultants and major cancer treatment centres such as the Mater University Hospital are located in Dublin. Do you think that we like getting up at 5am in the morning to get a bus to Dublin for a 9.30am appointment.
Does this mean they will be on time now? :D
@Sarah Ennis: Unlikely, as the scheduled two hour bus journey between Dublin and Cavan can take anything up to three hours. The new 109X routing travels along the M50 and we all know how traffic can get held up there. It beggars belief that Bus Eireann can be so belligerent concerning their paying customers.
Ireland will be ruined by unions
I find it totally unacceptable to be told we are having a better service when we are leaving 20 minutes earlier that the bus we used to get and arriving 10 minutes or later than we used to arrive. Therefore putting an extra half hour on our journey. (That’s when the bus is on time).
Having the bus return on the quarter past the hour is also totally unacceptable when most people finish work at 1700 hrs. Trying to get over to Bus Aras from the other side of the city is almost impossible.
The people on our bus say no one ever approached them in relation to the change of services or route, but the drivers were told we were for it. Somewhere along the line someone is telling porkies.
No consideration was taken for elderly people with appointments at the Mater Hospital. Not a day goes by but we would have elderly people with hospital appointments and now they have no idea where they are going.
Whoever came up with this crazy timetable and route needs to think again as it is totally unacceptable to the passengers. People are talking of car pool sharing, ( almost 12,000 Euro a year revenue to Bus Eireann). It just needs a few people to that and you will be well out of pocket. Going round by M50, Finglas and Broadstone just does not make sense. In fact the whole route makes no sense.
We also heard there were only 6 people on the first bus in the morning. What a waste of Diesel!
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