Dublin Airport Authority seeks legal block on Siptu strikes

The Dublin Airport Authority will today seek to legally prevent Friday’s four-hour closure of the country’s main airports — and the likely disruption to tens of thousands of passengers — through strike action by members of Siptu.

Last Friday, the DAA was given leave to seek an injunction preventing the action going ahead “on the basis that the proposed action by Siptu is unlawful, as it is contrary to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act”.

The authority, which runs Cork and Dublin Airports, argued that Siptu only balloted a portion of its membership on the proposal and the planned work stoppages are contrary to existing agreements between the company and the trade union.

Today, the injunction hearing will take place. Siptu said it is confident it will be able to mount a stiff defence of its right to take action, though it has not revealed the legal arguments it will pursue.

If the action by the DAA is successful, it would greatly minimise the impact of Friday’s disruption. The airports would remain open and only Siptu members at Aer Lingus, which did not seek an injunction, would remain eligible to stage industrial action.

Thanks to the measures it put in place last week, fewer than 10% of Aer Lingus’s 30,000 expected passengers are to be impacted even if DAA’s injunction fails and the airports close down.

Nonetheless, the action is going to come at a significant cost to the airline as it has already had to hire extra aircraft to minimise the impact to passengers.

Ryanair, which has also sought an injunction, has said a four-hour closure of the airports on Friday would affect almost 100 of its flights, carrying approximately 13,500 passengers. Shannon Airport Authority was assessing its position overnight before deciding whether to seek an injunction of its own.

Siptu’s industrial action is being taken over failure to agree how to address the almost €800m deficit in the Irish Airline Superannuation Scheme.

The trustees of that scheme have proposed that members’ benefits be cut by 20%. The Labour Court has said the two companies should inject money into a new defined benefit scheme, €110m in the case of Aer Lingus and €50m in the case of the DAA. Siptu wants their cash injection increased to cover the deficit.

Meanwhile, Mandate, which represents more than 300 workers in retail units in the DAA, has deferred its industrial action for Friday, to allow it to liaise with the expert group appointed to try to find a solution to the pensions crisis.