FULL RECOMMENDATION
PARTIES : BUS EIREANN DIVISION :
SUBJECT: 1.Pay Claim 2. School bus drivers provide a very important service to communities throughout the Country and have received no pay increase since the expiration of the 2017 pay agreement. EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS:
2. School bus drivers were in receipt of a pay increase of 3% in 2017/2018 at a time when no other grade of pay received a pay increase.
The parties have engaged extensively to secure agreement on a successor agreement to the agreement which was concluded in 2017 and which provided for a pay increase of 3% across two phases in 2017 and 2018. The Trade Unions seek an increase in pay for School Bus Drivers which would take fair account of the recent history of pay movement across the entire company. The employer is prepared to make an agreement providing for pay increase but submits that its capacity to increase pay is constrained by its overall financial position and the need to sustain the contract under which it operates school bus services funded by the Department of Education on a cost recovery basis. The employer also seeks to achieve change in the framework for changing boards and agreement to the right sizing of a range of boards across the system such that the driving time more closely mirrors working time particularly on a number of ‘legacy’ boards. In addition to the parties’ dispute in relation to pay and related proposals as regards boards, the parties are disagreed as to the degree to which an increase could be applied to a gratuity paid to drivers on retirement. Drivers are not currently permitted access to the company pension scheme but a significant development is expected to occur in this regard in early 2022 such that drivers will have the option of joining the company pension scheme. Having heard from the parties in detail at its hearing the Court recommends as follows: That the company offer of a pay increase of 1.5% with effect from 1stJanuary 2020 and 1.5% with effect from 1stJanuary 2021 should be amended to 2% with effect from 1stJanuary 2020 and 2% with effect from 1stJanuary 2021. That the parties should engage intensively for a period of 8 weeks in order to achieve agreement on a revised framework for amending boards and on arrangements to ‘right size’ boards such that driving time more closely reflects paid working time on certain boards. Should intensive and focussed engagement not achieve agreement directly between the parties, the matter should be referred back to the Workplace Commission for conciliation and, if necessary, to the Court thereafter for a definitive recommendation. That, having regard to impending statutory developments in relation to the Company pension scheme which create the opportunity to access to that scheme for school bus drivers in 2022, the parties should re-engage to address the claim for an increase in the ex-gratia payment payable to drivers who retire outside of the company pensions scheme. This engagement should take place no earlier than two months after the statutory change and should take account of the pattern of take up of the option to join the company pension scheme and the cost of any concession to the claim for remaining drivers. Should agreement not be reached locally between the parties, the matter should be referred for conciliation to the WRC and to the Court, if necessary, in the event of a failure of the parties to reach agreement at the WRC. The Court so recommends.
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