Aer Lingus cabin crew threaten to back pilots

CABIN CREW at Aer Lingus have threatened to join the airline’s pilots in their industrial protest over pay and conditions on offer at the company’s proposed new Belfast base.

The company has refused to discuss almost two-thirds of the topics put forward by pilots’ representatives last week.

The pilots’ unions issued a wish-list of topics, understood to be 14 last Thursday, which they wanted to debate with the airline in the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

However, before the two sides even sat down yesterday, Aer Lingus management is understood to have rejected the majority of them because they referred to terms and conditions at the Belfast base.

The pilots’ unions, the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association and IMPACT, called off 48-hour strike action by 480 pilots last week on the understanding the entitlements of pilots could be discussed at the LRC.

The company said it was only willing to discuss how the terms in Belfast could impact on the pilots in the south in the future.

Outside the LRC’s front doors, those positions have not outwardly changed, though the breadth of the discussions may be more than is being outwardly admitted. One source said the “agenda is large”.

The cabin crew, also represented by IMPACT, has written to the Labour Court asking if its recommendation of February last year would have been the same if the airline had admitted Belfast was the base it was talking about.

The Labour Court recommendation was that Aer Lingus should be allowed to recruit staff in foreign bases at local pay rates.

The union wants the court to clarify whether Belfast constitutes the foreign base as per the ruling and whether the court realised an existing base could suffer as a result.

One source told the Irish Examiner: “Clearly the Labour Court can send out a range of responses. The airline is interpreting the ruling in a way that is most favourable to it. Therefore, any ruling that comes back can only be more favourable to the pilots.”

However, the airline would argue that Belfast was not even mentioned as the likely base at the time of the Labour Court ruling and that Aer Lingus is still using Shannon as a hub, it has relocated a part that was not perform-ing financially to another base.

It is unclear when the Labour Court will respond to the letter from the cabin crew though it is hoped it will respond before the end of the week.

Today, the board of Aer Lingus meets to discuss the situation and, tomorrow, the airline’s affairs will be the subject of discussion around the Cabinet table.

Talks between the pilots and airline will resume at the Labour Relations Commission on Friday.