Pilots union 'considering all legal options' after Aer Lingus dismisses no confidence vote in CEO
More than 300 of Aer Lingus' 850 pilots attended the EGM in Dublin on Monday, which Ialpa said was a "very good" turnout given that up to 400 pilots were flying while the vote took place. Pic:Naoise Culhane-no fee
The executive board of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa) said it will consider all legal avenues to protect its members and ensure aviation safety after the union unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in the chief executive and chief operating officer of Aer Lingus.
More than 350 Aer Lingus pilots attended an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Monday evening in Dublin to discuss safety concerns following what Ialpa described as a flight interference from senior non-flying management.
Ialpa initially asked members to vote on a motion stating that Aer Lingus pilots "in their professional capacity as frontline guardians of aviation safety for all and in their promotion of safety first at all times, have no confidence in chief operations officer Adrian Dunne”.
The no-confidence motion was then extended to CEO Lynne Embleton, after it was confirmed she would not attend an urgent meeting with the union on Monday.
More than 300 of Aer Lingus' 850 pilots attended the EGM in Dublin on Monday, which Ialpa said was a "very good" turnout given that up to 400 pilots were flying while the vote took place.
"The Aer Lingus pilot members of Ialpa in their professional capacity as frontline guardians of aviation safety for all and in their promotion of ‘safety first’ at all times, have no confidence in Chief Executive Officer Lynne Embelton and Chief Operations Officer Adrian Dunne," the union said on Monday.
In a statement to the Irish Examiner, a spokesperson for Aer Lingus said the motions discussed at the EGM "have no effect."
"The decision of the Ialpa Executive to propose such motions to its membership was entirely inappropriate. There are two separate ongoing processes underway, a safety investigation following receipt of a safety report and a fact-finding process following concerns raised by an employee," the spokesperson continued.
"Both of these processes are being run in accordance with the procedures applicable to them, and it is important that the confidentiality and integrity of the processes are not subject to any outside interference. The Ialpa EGM and the motions proposed represent an attempt to interfere in these processes.”
Ialpa said it will now consider all legal avenues available to the union to ensure safety and protect its pilots.
It is understood that one of the possible legal avenues Ialpa could take is industrial action in the UK arm of Aer Lingus, whose operations are based in Manchester Airport.
Responding to Aer Lingus, Mark Tighe, president of Ialpa said: "The processes referred to by Aer Lingus are in regard to an individual pilot and are not the subject of the no-confidence motion.
"The motion was solely brought about due to executive management's interference in an operational flight and the CEO’s indifference to that issue, amongst other ongoing safety issues."
The unanimous vote of no confidence follows an incident that took place last week between Aer Lingus senior management and a pilot.
The pilot was flying an aircraft from Barbados to Manchester last week. There were two pilots on the plane, as well as off-duty cabin crew members, known as "positioning crew."
The flying of the positioning crew is quite rare, as off-duty cabin crew will usually stay overnight in the arriving destination after working a long-haul flight. There were no commercial passengers on board the flight.
The captain of the Aer Lingus aircraft instructed the crew to sit in economy class. The union argues that this was done to ensure the load of the aircraft was balanced and was thus considered a safety measure, which comes under the remit of the pilot.
Under EU aviation laws, the flight commander is the sole person responsible for the safety of the aircraft and everyone on board.
At some stage in the flight, the cabin crew manager asked the captain to move the positioning crew from economy to business class. When the pilot refused, the cabin crew manager complained to Aer Lingus.
It is understood that senior management emailed flight operations in Dublin, who sent an electronic message to the aircraft instructing the captain to move all positioning crew to business class. The captain did not comply with this instruction.
Once the flight landed in Manchester, the captain filed a report to a safety manager detailing the incident. Shortly after, a member of human resources at Aer Lingus contacted the captain to inform him that he had been suspended.
The positioning crew on the flight in question did not take part in the cabin crew strike at the Aer Lingus Manchester base from October 30 to November 2, as they were not members of the trade union Unite.
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