Cabin crew action yet to affect Aer Lingus passengers

IN SPITE of Aer Lingus cabin crew beginning industrial action this morning, passengers will not see an impact on their flights – for now.

IMPACT trade union has told its 1,300 members in the airline that from today they should:

* Not work on a free day.

* Take full meal breaks when they are due.

* Not work on the Washington/Madrid operation as it is outside working conditions. At present that route is only operated by crew based in Ireland on a voluntary basis and under Republic of Ireland working conditions.

The dispute between management and cabin crew is over the implementation of a binding arbitration from the Labour Relations Commission on how staff can achieve 850 flight hours annually.

As of a week ago, agreement appeared to have been reached. However, late last Tuesday, while the union said the company had abandoned elements of the deal leading to its threat of industrial action, management said the union had effectively sought to re-negotiate issues by introducing pre-conditions.

The company has warned it will remove from the payroll and even dismiss staff who breach the terms of the binding arbitration by the LRC.

The action will have to be interpreted by the company. Until now, volunteering to work on free days and to staff the Washington/Madrid routes were flexibilities that union members were giving the airline.

In that regard, they do not form part of the arbitration.

However, the taking of a meal break could cause difficulty.

The LRC recommendation says agreement should be reached between the two sides over that issue but none has been reached. In its absence the union is telling members to take the break.

Meanwhile, with air travel across much of Western Europe crippled by French air traffic controller protests yesterday, Fine Gael has said it will introduce a “no-strike” clause for controllers here.

The party’s transport spokesman Simon Coveney said he will bring draft legislation before the Oireachtas within weeks “to prevent the Irish air traffic controllers from striking in the future in the national interest, to protect an essential service”.

Mr Coveney said he would also be lobbying the European Commission for an EU-wide ban on strike action by air traffic controllers.

“The fact that a small number of very well paid air traffic controllers can shut down access to and from countries is ludicrous,” he said. “The industrial action by Irish air traffic controllers last January cost the state heavily and closed down the country to business and tourism at a time when we could least afford it.”

IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton branded Fine Gael proposals as “unnecessary and unworkable,” adding that there had been almost no strike action by Ireland’s air traffic controllers in the history of the state. The union said the four-hour stoppage in January was precipitated by management’s suspension of air traffic controllers, despite a mutual agreement to refer disputed work practices to the Labour Court which subsequently resolved the matter without further disruption.

Mr Staunton added that the Fine Gael proposals would go against most interpretations of international conventions governing the right to association and collective action.