They’re going to lose a lot of money in severance payments to managers.
Bus Éireann has been told it must completely abandon its Expressway service if it is to save its business, according to the Irish Independent.
The service has come under increasing pressure from private competitors in recent years and an assessment from Grant Thornton points out that getting rid of it completely is by far the best option to secure the company’s future.
Otherwise, the report states that Bus Éireann would need to axe six of its standard routes, secure state funding and start making profit from its school bus business.
If Bus Éireann does decide to axe its Expressway service, severance packages of up to €500,000 in total would need to be agreed.
General Secretary Dermot O’Leary said: “The NBRU has over the last two years been aware of the developing crisis at Bus Éireann in relation to the Expressway commercial service.
“We have conducted two ballots for industrial action during that time in the event that the company would move to unilaterally implement signalled changes to terms and conditions in a futile attempt to resolve this crisis.
“Unless all of the stakeholders, inclusive of the policy makers at the Department of Transport, the NTA, (whose implementation of this policy in the guise of saturating the bus market is central to the financial crisis) – along with company and Staff – come together and engage on potential solutions, the comprehensive network that has taken generations of Bus Éireann staff to build will unravel and ultimately disappear.”
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