Review of NTA and Bus Connects needed after vote, says TD Smith

Gary Ibbotson 20 Aug 2021

People Before Profit TD for Dublin-South Central Brid Smith is calling for a review of the role of the National Transport Authority (NTA) following the almost unanimous rejection of Bus Connects work practice proposals by Dublin Bus employees.

Deputy Smith said that the vote highlighted a “real problem” with the NTA and the public transport system.

“The Bus Connects plan designed by the NTA could no doubt improve public transport in the city, but it is far from the kind of radical investment in our transport service that we need; in total by the time, it is completed it promises only an additional 200 buses across the city from today’s fleet numbers, a figure that remains behind the numbers in 2009.

“This is woefully inadequate to the task we face,” she said.

More than 90 per cent of Dublin Bus drivers rejected a deal on work practice changes that included pay rises of almost 15 per cent in some cases.

Part of the Bus Connects plan would see workers drive various services and routes operate from the garages at which they are based.

Dublin Bus drivers are currently only required to drive one or two routes.

It would also potentially mean that employees would see an increase in their driving time during their 39-hour week.

The deal would have also seen workers be allowed take two weeks of leave, rather than three during summer with another week taken in the spring or winter.

In a statement, Dublin Bus said “the company will now consider this result.”

Deputy Smith said the vote tells the NTA that workers will not accept what they perceive as sub-standard conditions.

“Dublin Bus workers are to be congratulated and are absolutely right to reject a race to the bottom and insist on decent terms of employment,” she said.

“This is an issue of just transition and fairness in our battle to deal with climate change.

“We have to deliver changes, but we have to bring workers and communities with us and not force them to pay the price through weakening their conditions of work.

“One reason for this massive vote was real anger among bus workers at been threatened that the NTA would remove their jobs and hand them to private companies if they failed to agree to work longer shifts, that is not how we will tackle the climate crisis, workers can’t be browbeaten into accepting worst conditions.”

Deputy Smith severely criticised the NTA saying that it was “no longer fit for purpose.”

“It is obsessed with tendering competitions and has undermined the provision of services from the existing CIE group.

“The time for playing neoliberal games in public transport is over.

“I will be calling on the Minister for Transport and the Climate Action Committee to conduct a complete review of the role of the NTA as soon as possible.”

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