Mr. Greg Ennis:

On behalf of SIPTU's members in Bus Éireann and the wider CIE group, we thank the committee for the opportunity to outline their concerns about the unprecedented industrial relations situation within Bus Éireann.

The expected strike action of 20 February, which is not in the interests of the travelling public or our members, is avoidable. Our union has consistently requested a mechanism to ensure avoidance of industrial conflict relating to the matter. Regrettably, Bus Éireann has continued in recent weeks to maintain its position of unilateral cuts to our members' pay and terms and conditions of employment. Questionable measures have been implemented since 16 January, which have had a negative effect on our members' earnings and hours of work. From a public transport perspective, a number of PSO routes have not been operable. In recent days, we have seen a further attack on our members' terms and conditions, with management preventing workers on sick leave from returning to work on agreed payment terms.

As Ireland's largest trade union with upwards of 170,000 members, SIPTU has the largest number of front-line members in the CIE group. In Bus Éireann, SIPTU represents more than 1,000 workers across all categories. SIPTU's membership in Bus Éireann's sister CIE companies stands at 1,850 in Dublin Bus and 2,050 in Irish Rail. We also represent the majority of Bus Éireann's 400 school bus drivers, who are not directly affected by this current dispute. Our members in Dublin Bus and Irish Rail and among the Bus Éireann school bus drivers stand resolutely behind our Bus Éireann members and are understandably concerned about these unprecedented attacks within the Bus Éireann road passenger business.

This unprecedented approach by the new and recently appointed Bus Éireann senior management team is further evidence of the complete breakdown of the industrial relations architecture within the company and the wider CIE group. A Labour Court recommendation issued in May 2016 has been ignored by Bus Éireann, another recommendation issued August 2013 has been ignored by Irish Rail and the WRC settlement terms at Dublin Bus have also been ignored. Bus Éireann attended the Labour Court on our members' pay claim on 6 December 2016 and advised the court that it would not engage in the hearing, which was a clear breach of normal industrial relations protocol. Given that the CIE companies are now pursuing an àla carteapproach to Labour Court recommendations and collective agreements, it is becoming clear to our members in those companies that the institutions of the State tasked with resolving disputes are being undermined, if not being made obsolete.

The impending dispute is not the typical industrial relations confrontation between an employer and its employees. It has been in the making for some time and its root cause is a direct consequence of the Government's transport policy, particularly as it relates to rural and intercity services, and the importance of all participants' direct involvement or input into resolving same is imperative. I am referring to the Departments of Transport Tourism and Sport and Social Protection, the National Transport Authority, NTA, Bus Éireann and its trade unions.

The following factors have been instrumental in bringing us to a place where our rural and intercity transport bus service could come to a grinding halt and the risk of contagion across other CIE companies is growing by the day: proposed unilateral cuts to our members' pay, terms and conditions from 20 February 2017, notwithstanding the will of the Dáil pertaining to a recent motion on same and our existing collectively agreed employment terms; Bus Éireann workers have not had a pay increase in almost nine years and are now facing "phase 2 austerity" by way of pay cuts and so on; and a driver who earns €624 for a 39-hour week cannot be expected to subsidise the company by reducing overall earnings by between 20% and 30%. Workers cannot be expected to accept cuts in pay, terms and conditions and agree that they will do whatever the company wants for four years while also accepting that a large number of them may have to be made redundant by compulsory means.

Bus Éireann has seen a reduction of 35% in State subvention from €50 million in 2009 to €33.7 million in 2015. Subvention increased to €40 million in 2016. For the record, the CIE subvention was reduced by circa41%. We either want a public transport system or we do not. If we do, we need to fund it appropriately.

Free Travel accounts for one third of all journeys on Bus Éireann, but a return to the company of €4.86 against an average cost of €11.78 is not sustainable under any business model, particularly when there are currently 1.3 million free travel pass holders and that number is increasing. Our trade union supports those who depend on free travel, but the company needs to be adequately reimbursed for same. Many private operators licensed by the NTA do not carry free travel pass holders.

The 300 plus PSO routes are technically not losing money, as they receive subvention, but Bus Éireann must be afforded the opportunity and resources to compete on a level playing field with other operators. The 23 Expressway routes are losing circa€6 million per annum due to unfair market competition and subvention is not applied appropriately to take account of the PSO sections of these particular routes. Many of these routes should receive subvention, as they continue to service rural towns and citizens who reside off the motorway network. The private operator, licensed by the NTA, in the main drives direct city to city or has minimal stops during the journey. For example, Bus Éireann's Waterford-Dublin service has eight more stops than the private operators.

Many of the workers employed in the private transport sector receive poor terms and conditions and rely on the family income supplement, FIS. This is unfair competition and only serves to hasten a race to the bottom in employment terms and conditions. Surely that is not the sort of culture or transport system that we desire for Ireland. SIPTU believes that a sectoral employment order is necessary for categories such as drivers within the wider transport sector. This approach would ensure somewhat fairer competition.

Numerous times in recent weeks, Bus Éireann has referenced the potential for insolvency within the next 12 to 18 months. SIPTU has, without response, repeatedly called for an examination to explore the potential for Bus Éireann to be subsumed into a CIE holding company so as to create the space for a complete review of the Irish public transport system, which is in a critical state, from a funding and infrastructural position.

The State does not need to run a for-profit public bus service, but it must maintain a properly resourced and adequately funded one. Should future profits arise, they should be reinvested in the particular CIE company from which they were generated. In recent weeks, the Government announced its rural Ireland framework and its Ireland 2040 national planning strategy. Such a positive vision for the future is in conflict with its approach to the funding of our rural transport system and its unwillingness to get involved in the resolution of this intensifying and increasingly bitter dispute is mystifying and untenable.

Bus Éireann needs to remove its preconditions for talks and rescind its letters of 16, 18 and 27 January so as to facilitate an environment conducive to constructive talks. The CIE companies need to honour existing Labour Court recommendations and WRC settlements in order to restore the credibility of those institutions within the wider CIE group.

SIPTU members within Bus Éireann are resolute in their position to take strike action on 20 February should their employer again move to cut their pay, terms and conditions unilaterally from that date. While the conditions of employment in Bus Éireann are nothing more than bearable after almost nine years of a pay freeze, low rates of pay, etc., our members and this union owe it to our predecessors and future Bus Éireann employees to carry the torch and uphold the pay, terms and conditions achieved over many decades arising from sacrifices made during previous Bus Éireann cost saving-survival plans.

It behoves Bus Éireann, its trade unions, our elected public representatives and the Government to ensure that we maintain our national bus transport system through Bus Éireann so as to ensure that the travelling public, who acutely depend on such an essential service, are not disenfranchised or inconvenienced in any way. I trust that my brief submission to the committee will ensure that this is so by encouraging Bus Éireann to remove its written threats to cut our members' pay, terms and conditions of employment unilaterally from next Monday, 20 February and, in so doing, facilitate the overdue and necessary engagement of all protagonists on these most serious of matters.