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# SIPTU
Protests called off as bus routes privatisation row heads to the LRC
Siptu and the NBRU were due to take part in protests next week.
UNIONS WILL HEAD to the Labour Relations Commission next week in an attempt to end a dispute over the proposed privatisation of some bus routes.
The unions involved, Siptu and NBRU, have been invited to talks, which will also be attended by the National Transport Authority (NTA), Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.
The row centres around the plans to privatise some routes currently operated by Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.
“Siptu has been campaigning for some time against the flawed and ideologically driven plan being pursued by the NTA to outsource up to 10% of routes currently operated by Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann,” Siptu organiser Owen Reidy explained.
“The reality is such talks will come to little unless the NTA changes its approach and bins its illogical part privatisation agenda.
This agenda will prove to be a bad deal for the taxpayer, the travelling public and the workers who provide the public transport system.
NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary welcomed the NTA’s attendance at the talks, as “ignored staff concerns” until now, he claimed.
“One of the main planks of our campaign over recent months has been to highlight the continuous side-lining of staff concerns by the NTA”, and said that the protests will now be suspended in recognition of the invitation of the invitation.
Read: Industrial action threatened as Irish Rail plans to go ahead with pay cuts >
