Deputy Ryan gave me notice of his intention to raise the matter of the steps the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications proposes to take to secure a settlement of the dispute in An Post arising from their meeting with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Adjournment Debate. - An Post Industrial Dispute.
Thank you for affording me the opportunity of raising this important national issue. The Labour Party believe that the current dispute in An Post is similar in its nature and underlying cause to the recent RTE dispute. It is due to a complete breakdown of trust by the workforce in the motives and means that senior management are prepared to use to implement change. They also believe there is another hidden agenda.
The current industrial dispute in An Post, now in its fifth week, is having a devastating effect on the economic and social life of our economy. Throughout the length and breadth of the country small firms are being put at risk, orders are being lost and employees laid off. Some of these enterprises will never recover. Indeed, An Post may never recover if the dispute is allowed to continue and escalate. Each day the dispute continues many of these firms and An Post are a day closer to bankruptcy.
I wish to take issue with the machotactics being used by the management of An Post in this dispute. At present 1,300 postal workers who are working normally are not being paid. This is a deliberate tactic with the sole intention to escalate the dispute. At an early stage wage clerks were suspended and this was used as an excuse not to pay other employees who were working. Let me give a further example, in my constituency in County Dublin some 200 postal workers who are not affected in any way by the dispute and paid through another section by another mechanism have been left without their salaries. This was a deliberate decision by senior management. Does the Minister condone this?
Yesterday outside this House I met the spouses of postal workers who outlined to me a sorry tale of hardship which is being experienced by many of them and their children. Indeed, many of their children were with them. They are not entitled to social welfare payments and many of them cannot afford medical expenses or to meet their mortgage repayments.
What kind of industrial relations policy is this? As far as I am concerned, it is a relic of another age and is alien to this country. I condemn the one-sided approach taken by the Government, in particular by the Minister, throughout this dispute which has not been helpful. This has been acknowledged by all concerned but in particular by the workers. In addition to siding with the management, the Minister stated in this House to me and other Deputies that this dispute was mainly about overtime. This is not the case as clearly illustrated by the unions in their submission dated 13 May last in which they stated: "the phased reduction of overtime earnings recommended by the Tribunal will be implemented on an individual basis". If as the Minister stated, the question of overtime is the main issue surely the company should test the union's stated offer to eliminate overtime to the limit in negotiations.
The CWU also stated in their submission of 13 May that the relocation of Dublin delivery district offices 1 and 2 to two new premises will proceed on the basis recommended by the tribunal. Furthermore, they stated that the proposals for closure of the productivity agreements recommended by the tribunal will also go ahead. From my reading of the submission the outstanding matters relate to the 450 vacancies within the company and whether they should be casual or permanent positions. With over 280,000 people out of work at present a sound case could be made for making some or all of these permanent.
Given the significance of this issue, the Government must intervene. At this stage I ask the Taoiseach, the Minister, and the management of An Post to be more flexible. From my own contacts with the union I believe that they will be sufficiently flexible should the company show a willingness to enter meaningful negotiations.
I would be grateful if the Deputy would now bring his speech to a close.
Macho-management will always win in the short term but in the long term it is the managers and workers in An Post at all levels, co-operating together, who alone can turn the company's financial performance. In the national interest I call on the Government to instruct the management of An Post to enter into immediate negotiations and not insist on the introduction of casual labour as a remedy in relation to the future development of the company.
Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications (Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn)
At the meeting yesterday between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Minister for Labour and myself there was an exchange of views on the dispute in An Post. It was agreed that the Ministers and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions would keep in touch with a view to assisting the parties in their preparation for possible further discussions at the Labour Relations Commission.
The Labour Relations Commission recently sought elaboration from the tribunal on a number of aspects of its recommendations. I understand that the commission has received a reply from the tribunal and that the commission will consider what further action it can take in the matter.
An Post has been suffering financial losses for the past three years. The company's accumulated losses to the end of 1991 amounted to nearly £14 million and a loss of £8.5 million for 1992 was being projected by the company before the dispute took place. The company s annual overtime bill is £21 million. The dispute is causing serious financial damage to An Post as well as problems for users of the service.
Since March 1991 a total of 41 meetings have been held in an effort to secure agreement on recovering measures. Despite these meetings and the efforts of my predecessor, the Labour Relations Commission and an independent tribunal set up by the commission no agreement has yet been reached on cost reduction measures of any significance.
During the course of the management/ union negotiations the company paid a total of £18 million to its staff in terms of an arbitration award and the first phase of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. I would call on the unions to reflect on the deteriorating financial situation of An Post and to realise that the future of the company and their own members' jobs are being jeopardised. I am satisfied that the time has arrived for the unions to display reality and generosity by agreeing to the cost reduction measures now being implemented by An Post.
I am not going to go down the road of personalities as I do not think it would be profitable nor add in any way to resolution of this dispute. As Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications, I wish to reiterate what I said inside and outside this House, and in the other House, that I am on the side of the national interest and on the side of the taxpayer.
The dispute is now in its fifth week and it is vital that an early solution be reached, which will deliver the necessary cost cutting measures, to avoid further damaging effects on the postal service.
Both sides accept that An Post must be a commercially successful organisation in order to secure its future and the management remain available to talks either directly or under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission to bring about a speedy and equitable solution. I would therefore appeal to the unions to reconsider their stance and to adopt a positive and constructive approach and to enter into negotiations and discussions in a spirit of real compromise. I continue to monitor the whole situation very closely.