Talks on Aer Lingus dispute ongoing at Labour Court

Talks aimed at resolving the ongoing Aer Lingus pay dispute are continuing at the Labour Court between the airline’s management and the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA).

The airline said it is currently reviewing what further flight cancellations it may need to announce due to ongoing industrial action.

IALPA has warned that if today’s talks fail it will look at escalating the dispute.

Arriving at the court this afternoon, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aer Lingus Donal Moriarty said they were hopeful of making some progress at the talks.

“This dispute is causing significant financial and reputational damage to Aer Lingus and it’s impacting negatively on everyone that’s connected with the company, including our passengers,” Mr Moriarty said.

“We’ve no doubt that the engagement today in the Labour Court will be challenging but we’re willing to engage in that meaningfully,” he added.

On Saturday, Aer Lingus pilots, who are members of IALPA, took part in an eight-hour strike.

They are also continuing with an indefinite work-to-rule which began last Wednesday

The action involves pilots not working overtime or any other out-of-hours duties requested by management.

They are also refusing to log on to Aer Lingus online portals outside of work hours or answer work phone calls outside of work hours.

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The industrial action has so far led to the cancellation of 392 flights with more disruption on the way if a resolution is not found.

“There are 392 cancellations to date taking us up to Sunday 7 July,” Mr Moriarty said.

“We are currently reviewing what the cancellation programme may have to be going beyond that and that will happen later this week,” he added.

Read more: Crucial moment in Aer Lingus pilots dispute approaches as patience wears thin

Also arriving for the talks, IALPA President Captain Mark Tighe said that when the two sides last met on Thursday, the union was willing to move from its position of a 24% pay demand but that this was not reciprocated by management.

“Having moved, the company stated that they were not moving at all, which ended those talks and from where IALPA is, we believe that we are talking about a difference of approximately €5 million a year in a company that made €225 million last year and much more profits going forward,” Captain Tighe said.

“We hope now the company has reflected upon this, and that the Labour Court will be able to do something with this,” he added.

He also warned that if today’s talks fail, IALPA will be looking once again at escalating the industrial action with further withdrawals of service likely.

“There’s nothing that I can see beyond the Labour Court, and its extensive experience, so in recognition of that, we didn’t escalate but if this doesn’t work there are not many other options on the table,” he added.

Aer Lingus is seeking agreement on productivity and flexibility in return for any pay increases that go beyond the 12.25% agreed with other groups of workers at the company.

Last Tuesday, the Labour Court met separately with the two sides but said it would not be intervening at that time.

On Thursday, management and union representatives met face to face for five hours, but the talks broke down without agreement.

On Friday, the Labour Court issued a fresh invitation to the two parties involved to attend a meeting today to review the situation.

The development saw IALPA back down from a plan to escalate the industrial action.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless said there was a real opportunity to resolve the dispute.

“I just encourage all parties, look leave the baggage behind, leave everything on the table and actually just hammer it out as long as it takes.

“Go into the talks, stay in the talks and come out with an outcome,” he said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Lawless said it is unhelpful for ministers or the Taoiseach to get too involved at this stage of an industrial dispute.

“I think it would be unhelpful for me or anybody else to start ringing behind the scenes, making calls – not only would it be questionable legally and technically, but I think it would be extremely unhelpful to the process, so let’s see where this goes,” he said.