The sight of the Bus Eireann buses back on the roads on Tuesday morning last was a welcome sight after the disruptive strike, which had left people stranded over the weekend and into Monday.

The dispute between staff and management over pay erupted at the weekend, when drivers went on strike and the Bus Eireann fleets came off the roads. Bus Eireann plan to slash €4.2 million off their pay bill, which could represent a loss of up to €3,000 for some workers per year. The cuts would include a reduction in allowances and expenses, overtime rates and longer working hours.

SCHOOL-GOERS EQUALLY EFFECTED

Passengers who use the bus to get from Cork to Fermoy and Mitchelstown found themselves this week scrambling for lifts on Monday morning to get to work. While it was stated that the strike would not affect school buses, a lot of school children would also get this bus to school and their school passes would be accepted. However, this was not taken into consideration, so there were students who were left without their usual mode of transport, with less than a month to go until the State exams.

Fermoy Community Activist, Joe Tobin, said that the whole affair was a disgrace, as people were left unable to get to work and school.

“It’s a shame that they have put no contingency plan in place. They were slow to react with information and slow to update their website over the weekend and into Monday. They weren’t responding to the public on Facebook either.

“Some passengers are CIT students who are doing exams at present. They are being severely affected. The travelling public at large is suffering. Our local ministers have been slow to intervene,” Joe said.

DISTANT DUBAI

Meanwhile, TD Mattie McGrath has said that it is a disgrace that the chairman of Bus Eireann would not come back from Dubai to deal with the strike.

“We need an active, hands-on chairman and he can’t do that from Dubai. This strike action is hitting as many as 70,000 passengers and costing €200,000 a day. For all intents and purposes the picture of a chairman who cannot be bothered to return, sends out a very negative image about the sincerity of the top management to do everything in their power to end this dispute, despite the very obvious hard work that actually is occurring. We need the whole management team to work together, not to have divided interests in Dubai distracting from that,” he said.