Aer Lingus Management And Pilots To Attend Labour Court

Aer Lingus and the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) are to attend the Labour Court later today to try to find a solution to this ongoing pay dispute.

Last Saturday, hundreds of Aer Lingus pilots, who are members of IALPA, joined an eight hour strike, leading to 120 flights being cancelled, with up 17,000 passengers affected. The pilots marched through Dublin Airport carrying placards, calling for better pay.

The pilots are asking for a 24% pay rise, taking account of inflation since their last wage increase in 2019.

This strike comes on top of the passengers participating in an indefinite work to rule since last Wednesday, which involves them not working overtime, or doing any out of hour duties, requested by management.

This approach also involves a refusal to log onto the airline's online portal outside of working hours to answer work phone calls.

Overall, 392 flights have been cancelled.

Aer Lingus are looking for an agreement on productivity and flexibility before they can agree to a pay rise which goes beyond the 12.25% agreed with other groups working for the company.

The Labour Court had met separately with both parties last Tuesday. However, they have said that they will not be intervening at this time. Management and union representatives had met to face for five hours last Thursday, with talks breaking down without an agreement reached. 

IALPA had decided to back down from escalating this industrial action, after they received an invitation from the Labour Court to attend this upcoming meeting, reviewing this situation last Friday.