The Five unions at Bus Eireann are calling on the Minister for Transport to facilitate talks between all stakeholders in the company.
The head of Bus Eireann told a Dail Committee yesterday that the company was facing insolvency within the year.
Union bosses say any imposition of pay cuts will result in action by their staff, but they don't intend to shut down the network.
Head of the National Bus and Rail Union, Dermot OÂ’Leary says they want a forum with Bus Eireann, the NTA and Department of Transport reps;
Bus Eireann Trade Union Group issued a statement this afternoon;
"Staff at the State-owned Bus Éireann that provide up to 40000 economic and socially vital weekly services across the Country deserve more from the Shareholder than having the Company that they and many generations of Bus Workers help to build, unravelling before their eyes in a policy induced meltdown. All Five Unions are now calling on the Minister for Transport to provide leadership and do the right thing by both commuters and staff by facilitating a forum, without preconditions, through which all Stakeholders can play a role in resolving both the immediate crisis at Bus Éireann along with providing a platform that will ensure that a long term vision, and ultimately a Public Transport Plan that can finally be put in place without the constant and reactionary spectre of firefighting the industrial action inferno that inevitably follows from crisis to crisis such as we are witnessing today"
"If as has been suggested, Bus Éireann moves to unilaterally impose cuts, already described by the Minister himself as severe, than we will be left with no option but to respond accordingly. The Trade Union Group will reconvene in advance of the imposition of such cuts to consider all options in relation to industrial action, however, those that would expect that workers well immediately resort to type and shut down the entire Bus Éireann Network will do so through the ignorance that comes with being detached from the relationship between commuters and staff. Our representatives have insisted that we factor in that there are many of their passengers and school children particularly in the rural areas that rely almost exclusively on Bus Éireann’s services into our debate on any forced industrial action, with a view to minimising the impact on those commuters, we will in the meantime be acceding to requests from staff at Iarnrod Éireann and Dublin Bus for extensive briefings on the threat to their colleagues wages"
