Former CIÉ employees have staged a protest at Heuston Station in Dublin calling on the company to increase their pensions.
Before the economic crash in 2008, CIÉ matched pay increases granted to staff with pro-rata pension increases to its retired employees.
Pay increases for staff were restored in 2016, but pensioners have had no increase in 16 years.
They also paid PRSI at the lower rate meaning they do not receive the State pension and the many benefits that flow from it.
Former employees say that many vulnerable, older pensioners are suffering hardship.
“These are people who served the company well. They served the country well. They are struggling,” said CIÉ Salaried Pensioners’ Association Assistant Secretary Noreen Coughlan.
“They paid into a pension fund and how can you justify not giving them an increase,” Ms Coughlan said.
The CIÉ Group said it is extremely mindful of the frustration of pensioners whose pension has not been increased since 2008.
“However, pension increases can only be contemplated if those increases can be sustainably funded by the scheme,” a spokesperson said.
The company said that at the end of last year, the balance sheet deficit for the two defined benefit pension schemes operated by CIÉ was €371 million.
CIÉ said that a report by consultants Mercer concluded that it was “difficult to see how the CIÉ Board, acting prudently, could consent to the award of discretionary pension increases”.
“The CIÉ Board is acutely aware of the plight of pensioners but are mandated to act in a responsible manner in relation to the financial stability of the Scheme and the Group,” a CIÉ spokesperson said.
“CIÉ is committed to working with its trade unions to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Group’s pension schemes and facilitate increases for pensioners,” the company added.
