Labour group has 48 hours to resolve Aer Lingus row

THE Labour Relations Commission (LRC) has little more than 48 hours to find a resolution between Aer Lingus and its 480 pilots before they are suspended and thousands of passengers are grounded.

The airline last night agreed that along withpilots’ representatives IALPA and IMPACT it will go for talks at the LRC where both will lay out their position over appointment of pilots for the new Belfast base. There is no guarantee they will even meet face-to-face if the LRC sees no room for agreement.

Whether those talks will be successful will be evident fairly quickly and, if not, the pilots will have until Monday at 1pm to toe the company line and help train pilots for the new base or else face mass indefinite suspension from 3am on Tuesday.

While the commission was able to avert 48 hours of strike action two months ago, it will find it harder to have the same success this time around when it convenes the parties today.

Shay Cody of IMPACT said: “We look forward to engaging and hopefully finding a resolution.”

However, Aer Lingus would appear to be entering the talks merely to re-affirm that its commitment to hiring pilots on local terms and conditions remains and that any pilots who wish to be moved to Belfast from Dublin will have to forgo their existing pension entitlements and seniority.

If that is not something the unions will accept, then there will be no further discussion. “We have said plenty of times before we have had enough of talks about talks and the Monday deadline still holds firm,” said one airline source.

Meanwhile, the Irish Travel Agents’ Association has called on Aer Lingus to provide the option of full refunds to passengers with bookings in the next few weeks who wish to cancel and make alternative arrangements.

The association’s chief executive Simon Nugent said that members were being inundated with calls from anxious customers in the last couple of days concerned that the entire value of their holiday might be lost.

Aer Lingus said it would be fairly clear by this afternoon whether the suspensions would go ahead and therefore flights be cancelled. It said details of contingency strategies would be unveiled at that point.