The Irish Rail trade union group said: “Despite the best efforts of the WRC, Irish Rail senior management have once again demonstrated their total disdain for their own staff and those that rely on Irish Rail services. We have spent the last twelve hours engaging in what we understood to be last ditch efforts to produce a proposal on pay which could be presented to our members, and in so doing stave off what we consider to be unnecessary industrial action. Such action will discommode tens of thousands of commuters over the coming weeks, in the run-up to Christmas and beyond.We had forewarned the Company in advance of today’s discussions that those that appeared at the WRC on behalf of Irish Rail should be able to come to the table with a clear mandate to negotiate. Regrettably, once again we have experienced the situation where those outside of the negotiating process has undermined and sabotaged any prospects of concluding settlement proposals and we would call into question the CEO’s role in this debacle. Consequently, trade unions will now proceed to conclude and count their respective ballots, with announcements tomorrow afternoon on the details relating to the anticipated roll-out on the industrial action/strike action across the rail network in the coming weeks”
Irish Rail talks at WRC collapse
