Employment tribunal considers recommendations in Aer Lingus pilots dispute

The employment tribunal is considering recommendations in the dispute between Aer Lingus management and its pilots, as the airline announced further flight cancellations.

The recommendations of the labor dispute resolution body are expected to be made within several days.

Aer Lingus has announced that 76 more flights will be cancelled between Monday and Wednesday as a pay dispute between the airline and pilots continues to rage.

The airline has cancelled flights in batches during the pilots’ indefinite work-to-rule strike, which began last Wednesday, in a bid to protect services from the “highly disruptive” industrial action.

Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus’ chief corporate officer, thanked the court for conducting a “comprehensive” hearing and said it was a “significant milestone” in the dispute.

“The tribunal is currently considering what the parties have said and will make its recommendation in due course, and Aer Lingus will await that recommendation.”

He said he would not discuss what was said during the hearing out of respect for the court.

“Aer Lingus hopes that the court’s intervention will help resolve this dispute.

“So we remain hopeful that this can happen and today was certainly an important step in that regard.”

Captain Mark Tighe, chairman of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), said he remained optimistic about a resolution and would put the recommendations to a vote among his members.

Last month, Ialpa members rejected a previous interim recommendation from the labour court for a 9.25% pay rise.

“We cannot allow corporate greed to continue like this,” Mr Tighe said.

He said there would be no escalation of industrial action while the employment tribunal considers its recommendations, but said earlier in the week that if those rounds of negotiations fail he would consider escalation.

The talks at the labor dispute resolution body are the latest attempt to bring the two sides together to reach a resolution.

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After eight hours of discussions on Monday, the labor court decided to hold a formal meeting on Wednesday, at the end of which it will issue recommendations.

Ahead of the two sides’ meeting at the Lansdowne Road building on Wednesday, Aer Lingus announced further flight cancellations to limit the impact of industrial action on people’s travel plans.

The airline said it would contact affected customers from today to offer them a free flight change, refund or voucher.

A list of affected flights can be found on the travel advice page on the Aer Lingus website.

“Aer Lingus fully understands the anxiety felt by customers given the uncertainty caused by Ialpa’s industrial action and is offering affected customers as many options as possible,” it said in a statement.

The pilots were demanding a 24% pay increase, which they said was in line with inflation since the last pay increase in 2019.

However, Ialpa said last week that it would be willing to consider a lower pay rise.

But she accuses Aer Lingus of failing to make a similar compromise to move away from its 12.25% offer, without asking pilots to improve their productivity.

Speaking at the employment tribunal, Mr Tighe said Ireland was “a small, open but very prosperous economy”.

“While attracting business, it must be recognized that business owners who do not protect their employees from inflation in a prosperous environment will, over time, impoverish their employees.

“This will happen from the lowest employees on the ladder, as they slide down the ladder one by one.

“We have asked the employment tribunal to take into account, in future, the profitable nature of the business and how a reasonable claim could protect us all from inflation.”

Mr Moriarty, Aer Lingus’ chief corporate officer, apologised to customers for the 470 flight cancellations to date.

“We try to communicate as effectively as possible with our customers, giving them the opportunity to change their booking, get a refund or reorganize their trip.

“But we are aware that this is very disruptive for them and that is our main concern.

“We would like to see what the court recommends and address the implications of that decision later rather than now.”

He added: “The reason for the cancellations is to build resilience into our schedule, to limit the number of cancellations actually, because without that resilience and that flexibility within our operations, there would be more cancellations.

“The nature of work-to-rule is cumulative. As the workforce ages, it deteriorates and the reluctance to accept daily changes in workforce means that the workforce deteriorates over time and that is what is causing the impact in terms of cancellations.”

Finance Minister Jack Chambers said the industrial dispute had been “incredibly damaging” to the Irish economy.

“I think it has caused huge disruption for many tourists but also for Irish people who were looking forward to those holidays abroad,” he said.

“I think the conflict, so far, is far too entrenched between the two parties. I am pleased that they have initiated proceedings before the employment tribunal and I hope that we will reach a positive resolution to this conflict.

“But I would say there is a constant concern that if this situation persists it will cause continued damage to tourism and the economy.”