Labour Court does not recommend concession of gangers’ pay claim

The Labour Court did not recommend that Iarnrod Eireann concede the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union’s claim for higher pay for overhead line gangers. Its recommendation was signed on 27 September 2012. The union said the gangers did broadly similar work to mobile and signal gangers, with greater responsibility and competency skills, and should receive similar pay. Iarnrod Eireann said the other roles’ rates included allowances agreed in collective agreements that overhead line gangers had never received. It also cited the risk of job losses and further cuts to terms and conditions amid its financial difficulties. The Court said the pay difference had been established by a 2001 collective agreement and accepted for more than ten years, and that it could see no justifiable reason to regard it as unacceptable.