Aer Lingus sides reach agreement in dispute

AFTER 15 months of accusation and counter-accusation, the last three weeks of which have seen hundreds of flights cancelled and thousands of passengers grounded, Aer Lingus management and cabin crew finally appear to have ended their rostering dispute.

A fourth marathon session under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) finally saw a breakthrough in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The two sides have reached “virtually” full agreement on how cabin crew members’ annual flying time will be increased to 850 hours. Remaining outstanding issues will now be the subject of binding arbitration by the officials from the LRC. That means the two sides will be bound by whatever recommendation emerges from the LRC within the next few days.

As a result industrial action ongoing since October by cabin crew members of IMPACT trade union will now be lifted. In return, the airline is to re-instate more than 300 staff who have been removed from the payroll and delete from its records details of disciplinary procedures.

Aer Lingus and IMPACT also reached agreement on industrial peace for the duration of the Greenfield business recovery programme beyond December 2012.

Aer Lingus management has warned passengers intending to travel over the weekend that they still need to check its website to ensure their flight is going ahead. Today there are 14 flights cancelled, all short haul. There are 10 flights cancelled to and from Dublin, one flight to and from Cork and one to and from Shannon.

On Sunday, there are 20 flights cancelled, again all short haul. Of those 14 are to and from Dublin, two to and from Cork and four to and from Shannon.