Luas drivers have voted to rejected a pay deal that was struck ahead of St Patrick’s Day, which throws major doubt over travel arrangements for the Easter 1916 centenary celebrations.
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“We have always stated that notified industrial action will proceed unless an agreement is reached and that remains the case”.
Transdev, which operates Luas, said regrettably its services would not be running this weekend, potentially one of the busiest of the year.
“He didn’t call on me to do that, because he probably knows that I can’t”, he said. “For example a driver on €42,247 would have seen an increase in their salary to €50,000 by January 2019 – plus a bonus of €3,250 to an overall salary level of €53,250”.
Mr Madden said the offer had been binned.
He said that given the magnitude of the rejection of the pay deal by Luas staff, Transdev had said it needed to take stock and would not make a knee jerk reaction.
He said some drivers rejected the proposals because “drivers did not want to accept a new pay scale that leaves new entrants on lower pay than current staff”.
The Luas strikes on Easter Sunday and Monday will go ahead as planned, despite recent talks, the Transport Minister has confirmed.
Luas workers must truly believe that they can secure a better deal despite the fact that the WRC told them that this was the best that could be negotiated.
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It will leave tens of thousands of passengers with few transportation options to attend Easter Rising centenary events, said Dublin Town CEO Richard Guiney. “The public will expect a demonstration of good faith from them on this matter”.
