Aer Lingus industrial action called off for talks

Aer Lingus will operate a full schedule of flights on Monday as talks at the Labour Relations Commission aimed at resolving a two-year-old pension dispute adjourned last night.

Siptu, which represents Aer Lingus staff and workers at the country’s main airports, had threatened industrial action in its fight to protect pensions.

Unions and management from Aer Lingus and Dublin Airports Authority met yesterday to discuss proposals by LRC chief executive Kieran Mulvey on how to address the €700m shortfall in the airline’s superannuation scheme, which has about 15,000 members.

The talks adjourned last night and are expected to resume early next week. “Both sides will be spending the weekend looking at technical issues raised during the discussions,” said an Aer Lingus spokesman. “The talks are adjourned for the moment to address these complex issues but they will resume early next week, probably on Tuesday.”

Earlier, Siptu said that while it has withdrawn strike notice, it has not cancelled the action itself, meaning if the LRC talks fail, the threat of disruption could hang over passengers within a matter of days.

Fianna Fáil transport spokesman Timmy Dooley appealed for Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to intervene, warning that even the threat of industrial action could “prevent people from coming to Ireland”.

Meanwhile, strike action has forced the cancellation of a number of Brittany Ferries sailings between Cork and Roscoff this weekend.

The company said the action was being taken by some French crews “in protest at measures being made to improve productivity and efficiency”.

It said special arrangements with Irish Ferries and Celtic Link have been put in place which could see intending passengers able to transfer on alternate sailings.