Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 31 Jan 1978

Vol. 303 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Blackrock (Dublin) Postal Dispute.

Mr. B. Desmond

I will not take the full time because other Deputies may wish to speak on this matter. I regret that for the second time in recent months I have been obliged to raise in the House a staff relations dispute in the Post Office. The Minister and the House may recall that the first one I raised was in Cork city recently in the engineering depot where a protracted dispute was finally resolved after the Minister and his Department paid some direct attention to the views expressed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Post Office Engineering Union. That dispute was resolved after some considerable difficulty.

I regret that I must again raise the question of the dispute in the constituency I represent. For the past 16 days, some 70 staff in the Blackrock, County Dublin, Post Office, postmen, drivers and sorters, have refused to work new duty arrangements or rosters. As the House may be aware, this dispute was triggered off by the suspension of one of the men concerned who refused to carry out the new duty. For some years past I have been aware of the very poor staff relations in this postal district. When I was on the Government side of the House, local Deputies were aware of the excessive degree of friction and unrest in the district, disputes concerning issues of supervision, inspection and negotiations on new duties, and lack of consultation about the introduction of such new duties. These have been known for some time to the post office management side and the trade union concerned, the Post Office Workers' Union, have been aware of a deterioration in staff relations and, on occasions, they warned the management side of the prospects of serious trouble.

In the Blackrock area, in Monkstown, Deansgrange, Booterstown, Mount Merrion and parts of Leopardstown and Stillorgan, there has been no letter or parcel delivery for three weeks. About 1,000 bags of parcel and letter mail are affected, presumably lying in Sheriff Street awaiting transmission to Blackrock for delivery. As all Deputies for the constituency know, the effects are becoming widespread and the hardship caused has reached such proportions that we as public representatives have no option but to raise an industrial dispute of this nature in this House. This is not the best place for the settlement of an industrial dispute. By and large we do not make political issues of such matters across the floor of the House, but we have no option but to raise this matter here. Pensioners may be awaiting company pension cheques. Employment is also being affected in the area in companies like Glenabbey, Dublin Crystal and the Skerries Shirt Company. Almost everybody in the area is affected by this dispute. People are becoming more and more irate at the prospect of not much progress being made towards a settlement.

I have excellent relations with the Minister and the Minister of State, but I must confess I view with some amazement their lack of direct involvement in the settlement of this dispute. When the Minister took office in July, there was a flurry about a flowery part of the manifesto which spoke about a review and an effort being made to improve staff relations in the Post Office. This was greeted with some respect at the time. The Post Office Workers' Union did not write to the Minister until about August to give him some time to settle in. I understand the union wrote to the Minister in August and have heard nothing from him since, and this is January 1978. Unless I am profoundly mistaken, the Post Office Workers' Union have had no meeting with either the Minister or the Minister of State, notwithstanding the fact that such a meeting was requested to discuss staff relations generally in the Post Office. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that in Blackrock we have this kind of situation. I do not know what the Ministers are doing, whether they are popping in and out of the GPO, or just doing constituency work. This Department were abused when Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien was Minister. He was on the receiving end in regard to many matters. Now two Ministers are responsible and nothing much seems to be done.

I hope there will be consultations in the very near future. Otherwise, at the annual conference of the Post Office Workers' Union shortly some very sharp things will be said to the Ministers concerned. The Minister should state the position in regard to Blackrock. It is regrettable that it developed into an unofficial strike. Because of the pressure and the local friction it finished up on that note. As a trade unionist I deplore unofficial strikes, but degrees of aggravation can arise; then when people are told to do new duties, they refuse and confrontation takes place. The Minister should intervene. The old roster duties should be continued for an interim period. Clearcut negotiations on the new duties should commence immediately. Both sides should be helped to clear the air or some of the side issues including some personality issues.

For this reason I would ask the Minister to intervene and to consult directly with the Post Office Workers' Union in an effort to resolve the matter. A lot more could be said which perhaps might better not be said. I understand that meetings by the men concerned are taking place either tonight or tomorrow night. I understand that the union officials concerned will be discussing the matter with their members. I hope the archaic structure of staff relations will be the subject of early review by the Minister. I understand that other Deputies wish to speak so I will leave it at that.

Mr. Cosgrave

I wish to ask the Minister one question about this matter. He is aware from public and other comments of how serious the situation is. Has he received information to the effect that the proposed allocation of time involves men in doing without a meal between a period from 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon? Perhaps he will consult with those affected to see if this is so. He might also consider the question of having some outside person to act as intermediary between the personnel involved and his own Department to ensure that the matter would not be the subject of any recriminations on a personality basis.

Mr. Horgan

I should like to add my voice to the plea made by Deputy Desmond for direct intervention by the Minister to help in the resolution of this dispute. Ministers on the Government side of the House have argued in respect of many industrial disputes that it is not appropriate for a Minister to intervene. In a dispute in this Department where the Minister has direct responsibility, I would urge very strongly on him the wisdom and the advisability of putting his personal prestige and that of his office behind an initiative which would resolve this dispute. One of the reasons I ask him to do so is the very simple and demonstrable fact that, the longer this rather sad dispute drags on, the more intense the dislocation of social, industrial and commercial life in the area will be. It is an area that spans not only Deputy Desmond's constituency but also large areas of the South County Dublin constituency.

It may not be realised generally by the public who do not live in that part of the southern suburbs that despite presumed residential character there is quite a lot of industrial and commercial activity in the area. Needless to say, this form of commercial activity, which with very few exceptions is small industry and smallscale commercial activity, is intensely dependent on a regular postal service for the normal aspects of commerce, such as orders and deliveries and also for the delivery of equipment and machinery to fulfil orders. One has only to read this evening's papers to see that the effects of the dispute are beginning to bite very severely in the economic infrastructure of the area.

If the dispute is not solved in the very near future there will be a rapid growth in the concern of many of the private residents in the area who rely quite substantially on the postal services. Many inhabitants of the area would tend perhaps to be rather older than the national average and they rely on the postal services very much more than younger people who are more mobile and who have greater access to other methods of communication. They may be elderly people who are dependent on the postal services simply to bring them funds from relatives or from the social welfare services in order to enable them to live. I have had a number of first-hand complaints where this sort of problem has arisen.

Again, people are worried—perhaps unnecessarily the Minister may say but it is a real worry in their minds— that electricity supplies will be disconnected because of their failure to pay ESB bills that have not arrived. I realise that is not the direct responsibility of this Minister—I have put down a question to the appropriate Minister asking him to ensure that this does not happen—but I would impress on the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the increasing urgency of his intervention in order to solve this dispute. It is a dispute whose effects grow in geometric proportion rather than in arithmetic proportion and I would urge him to use his best offices in the matter.

Mr. Kelly

I should like to thank the Deputies who have spoken before me for their courtesy in curtailing their speeches. I should like to add a few words to what has been said. The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs has inherited a very bad set of circumstances so far as industrial relations in his Department are concerned. I hope he will understand that although the matter before the House this evening is largely a localised and constituency problem, the concern that has been expressed by the other three Deputies and which is now being expressed by me is something which could very easily become nation-wide.

I intend no reflection on the Minister personally but I should like to ask him to visualise the situation in which he would find himself if the population of Dundalk or Drogheda were in a similar position. The population of those towns is roughly comparable to the population served from the Blackrock Post Office. If that population were without postal services for the last two or three weeks as described by Deputies I think the Minister would be active in the matter and perhaps he would even step over the limitations which Ministers pretend exist around themselves in regard to intervening in industrial disputes.

Before Christmas in connection with Ferenka we heard it was impossible for a Minister to intervene. The Minister for Labour maintained the modesty of a daisy for four weeks while that factory was in the process of closing down, on the alleged grounds that a Minister must not get too involved, that he must not devalue his own presence—which he devalues in other ways every day of the week— by intervening too easily in an industrial dispute. Overnight all of that changed. The Minister for Labour should be present this evening because this matter is one of the most important areas of industrial difficulty. That Minister intervened in the Ferenka dispute to no effect. He did his best for two days but to no avail and then he disappeared from the scene. He was not seen again until Ferenka closed.

An Ceann Comhairle

The House is discussing another matter.

Mr. Kelly

I am trying to impress on the House and on the Minister that this supposed etiquette whereby a Minister does not devalue his own reverence, where he stands clear of industrial disputes, is no use to the people who are suffering. I wish to support strongly what Deputy Horgan said in regard to the people in the constituency which he and I represent. Many of them are retired and they depend on remittances and pensions which cannot be collected but which arrive through the post. I will give the House another example which I encountered today when I tried to send a telegram of sympathy in that constituency only to find it could not be delivered. I am not complaining about this from my own point of view but I am sure the Minister will realise what a comfort and support it is to a bereaved family to have messages delivered at the moment of their anguish. I know I do not need to press this point because the Minister is a decent, humane person but I must emphasise to him the dimensions of the situation over which he is presiding. I urge him to intervene in this matter.

Of course that is entirely apart from and is in addition to the point made by Deputy Horgan which I support and repeat, that the commercial and industrial life of the district which spans two constituencies is being rendered impossible. In common with the other Deputies I am getting messages daily from people whose businesses are being rendered impossible by the continuation of this dispute. I do not expect the Minister to work an industrial miracle but I say that industrial relations generally, and in particular in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, are one of the top economic and social problems in the country. The Minister will be doing a good job if he regards that as the first nut for him to crack before he is six months in office.

Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (Mr. Faulkner)

First, I should like to express my regret that the public generally and the business community in particular in the Blackrock postal area have been deprived of postal services for more than a fortnight. I am fully conscious of the difficulties and hardships that arise from being deprived of postal services for any period. I have been most anxious from the outset that this unofficial industrial action should be brought to an end quickly and service restored to the public.

Earlier today I outlined in a written reply to Deputy Cosgrave the background to this industrial action. I have no knowledge of the point raised by Deputy Cosgrave but I would point out that in any event the staff have the opportunity of raising any such problem through the normal channels, through their union.

As Deputies will realise, with a housing development, the motorisation of deliveries and so on, revision of postmen's delivery routes is a constant feature of postal operations. These revisions are carried out in accordance with well-defined and accepted standards and, in addition, the average volume of mail to be delivered and the time required to deliver it are determined by practical tests of delivery routes. The revision in the Blackrock area arose primarily from a need to provide for housing development in the area. When the revised arrangements were communicated to the local branch in August 1977 they asked that the arrangements be amended to include a five-day week for postmen-drivers at the office. The arrangements were amended accordingly and they were later discussed locally and with the headquarters union catering for postmen. Introduction of the revised scheme was deferred on five occasions. I have a note of them here—from 24 October to 7 November, to 21 November to 28 November, to 9 January, to 16 January, at the request of the unions.

At that point the Department were satisfied that the arrangements were reasonable and in accordance with standard practice. But—and I want to emphasise this—the union representatives were assured that any difficulties that might arise in their operation would be examined in consultation with the union. Nevertheless, when the Department introduced the revised arrangements on 16 January the staff refused to implement them. One man was suspended for his refusal and the others took unofficial strike action. I do not need to emphasise that action of this kind is contrary to agreements existing between the Department and the post office union for the peaceful resolution of problems. My Department and the union headquarters concerned have been in continuous contact about this action. I understand the union have advised the men to call off their action and resume normal work. Of course the union and the staff are aware that, when normal working has been resumed, it is open to the union to represent any problems the staff may have whether in relation to the revised arrangements or to any other matters causing them difficulties and to have them examined.

I would emphasise that the present action is unofficial. Deputies, and particularly trade unionists like myself, recognise they are treading on dangerous ground when they ask that somebody intervene in unofficial industrial action.

Deputy Barry Desmond stated here that he is reasonably satisfied that the staff at Blackrock have justification in respect of a number of their complaints. But if the staff have what the Deputy would consider to be justification in respect of complaints, is he suggesting that this justifies taking unofficial industrial action and inflicting inconvenience and hardship on the public? The Deputy must be aware that there are agreed peaceful procedures by which any complaints or proposals the men have can be processed through their union.

Deputies asked in the course of this discussion what action I am taking to resolve this problem. It must be realised that, in a situation of this kind, the options open to me are limited. I have been pressed by some Deputies to enter into negotiation with those who are taking unofficial action. It will be recognised generally that such action by me would lead to an intolerable situation for my Department and for the union. I could not contemplate such a situation. The only action open to me is to deal with the headquarters of the union in regard to arrangements for a return to work. I would ask the Deputies concerned—and I know they are concerned about the situation—to use whatever influence they have with those who are on unofficial strike to get them to return to the peaceful procedures for resolving their problems. I would also appeal very strongly to the staff to return to work so that the matters at dispute can be settled amicably. The changes which were made, relatively speaking, are minor. They are in accordance with agreed accepted practice. I feel they do not justify the placing in jeopardy of jobs referred to by a number of Deputies here this evening nor do they justify the very severe inconvenience to the public they serve.

I am most anxious that this dispute be settled. Again I would appeal to the staff to reurn to work. When they do we can immediately have discussions with the union to resolve whatever problems they may feel they have in relation to this matter.

Mr. Kelly

In the couple of minutes left might I ask the Minister if he will be able to bring to the attention of the personnel involved the appeal he has just made. It is too much to hope that they will read this portion of the Official Report.

Mr. Faulkner

I would hope that the media would ensure that it gets the publicity it deserves, and I will see what else I can do.

Mr. Kelly

I do not want to delay the Minister unduly—and perhaps some other Deputy may want to ask a supplementary question—but has the Minister any contingency plans for dealing with the situation if it is still going on in another two weeks?

Mr. Faulkner

We have already taken some steps in relation to dealing with the social welfare aspect of it. I would hope the staff would recognise that we are only too anxious to try to deal with the problems facing them but that these can be dealt with only within the agreed procedures. They are not procedures imposed by the post office; they are agreed procedures between the Department and the union. I would earnestly appeal to them to go back to work and make use of these procedures.

Mr. B. Desmond

Might I ask the Minister if he could personally assure the executive officers of the Post Office Workers' Union that there will be clear negotiations between his Department and the staff locally on the revision of duties following a resumption of work. In effect I understand that that is all the men want but because of the distrust a statement coming from the Minister would clear the air. That is all he would have to do, but could he do so personally?

Mr. Faulkner

I can, yes. The union executive are fully aware of the situation.

Mr. B. Desmond

I think the Minister himself said that it would clear the air.

Mr. Faulkner

Yes.

The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 February, 1978.