In short, further privatisation is off the menu after the proposed plans in 2019. Good news for the Unions and more so for the 100,000 customers who use the service across the country, especially after the May Bank Hollier weekend.
Planned 5 days strikes across the land by Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus have been called off after talks that continued until 5am this morning. There was due to be disruptions this Friday and Saturday, but that and further strikes will not go ahead.
In a statement, NBRU (that being the National Bus and Rail Union) general secretary Dermot O’Leary said:
"We went into these set of discussions with a clear focus on what was required to address the concerns of our members as part of the original agreed inter-locked agenda. Those concerns included the security of employment in both companies and the future in terms of seeing beyond 2019. Both companies growth strategy will be supported by Government, there is also a commitment to immediately establish a process to deal with our concerns with the legislation covering future contract awards, this will help to underpin the Ministers commitment to having a strong Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann into the future. A Social Clause type arrangement with agreed employment standards under a Sectorial Employment Order (SEO) will form part of any new public transport service contract; the NTA will apply a performance regime which will have the power to enforce penalties, inclusive of the ultimate sanction of contract cessation: we were also given assurances that labour costs will not necessarily be the dominant factor in the criteria process."
