Dublin Bus has warned employees currently engaging in industrial action that their strikes are having a "catastrophic" effect on the company's financial position.
In a letter to staff, Chief Executive Ray Coyne says that the ongoing pay dispute is undermining all past efforts to recovery, and has the potential to return the company to a post-2010 financial crisis.
He describes this scenario as totally unnecessary and wholly avoidable but warns that if it happened, it would require actions to restore the company to a sound financial footing.
Mr Coyne says the four strike days to date have cost the company over €4m, while this week's stoppages on Friday and Saturday will cost an additional €2m.
This will leave the company in the red for 2016, he said.
He also states that the additional 13 days of planned strikes will cost an additional €15m.
Funding the unions 15% pay claim over three years would cost €50m by the end of 2018, he said, adding that this additional cost on a company that has only recently returned to a sound financial footing is simply not affordable.
He concluded the letter by reiterating his call on all parties to attend talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross, meanwhile, has said he will not "ride in on a white horse in shining armour" with a chequebook to solve the industrial dispute at Dublin Bus.
