A repeat of the train strikes which caused huge disruption across the State last August was possible if Iarnrod Eireann continued to refuse to negotiate with the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association, its chairman said yesterday.
Mr Brendan Ogle, who was speaking after the unanimous Supreme Court ruling that Iarnrod Eireann was not obliged to negotiate with the ILDA, called on the company to recognise - "as the Supreme Court has" - that its employees were "entitled to be members of the ILDA".
"If the company continues to refuse to recognise us, it would not bode well for the continuation of guaranteed train services," he said.
Yesterday's judgment was on an appeal by the ILDA against an earlier High Court ruling that Iarnrod Eireann was not obliged to negotiate with the association. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal, ruling that the ILDA was not an "excepted" body, and upheld the earlier judgment.
The court also questioned whether agreements reached with licensed trade unions (in this case the National Bus and Railworkers' Union and SIPTU) should be binding on employees belonging to other representative bodies (ILDA).
Iarnrod Eireann would "absolutely, definitely not" be entering into negotiations with the ILDA, said Mr Barry Kenny, the company's spokesman.
