Bus Éireann has agreed to make 46 temporary drivers permanent after talks aimed at averting a strike over its cost recovery plan.
Due to a fall in passenger numbers, the company is now losing over €500,000 a week, and wants to introduce a €30m package of cost saving reforms.
These would include 320 redundancies (including 220 drivers), changes in work practices, and altering or cutting certain uneconomic routes.
The company had threatened to implement that plan from yesterday, a move which would have triggered a strike by SIPTU and the NBRU.
However, after the Labour Court intervened last week, Bus Éireann deferred implementation to allow talks to proceed today.
The company has now agreed to the key union demand of making the 46 drivers permanent tomorrow.
This will permit further talks to take place at the LRC on Friday.
Bus Éireann has again postponed implementation of its planned cutbacks pending the outcome of those talks.
