IRISH holidaymakers hoping to jet off with Aer Lingus could face further flight cancellations due to the ongoing pay dispute.
Some 80,000 passengers have already been impacted by cancellations that have hit the strike-embattled airline.
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Aer Lingus, who have axed almost 500 flights so far, said they made the decision to cancel some flights order to protect “as many services as possible” from being impacted.
Yesterday, in a move that seriously increased the likelihood of a resolution to the ongoing pay dispute, Aer Lingus accepted a Labour Court recommendation to increase pilots’ pay by 17.75 per cent.
The recommendation of the Labour Court must now also be considered by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association.
If the pay rise is accepted accepted by both parties, it will end the dispute that has now impacted over 80,000 passengers.
However, IALPA president, Captain Mark Tighe has confirmed that an indefinite work-to-rule, which has been in place since June 26, will remain in place as members vote on the recommendation.
This could potentially see more flights cancelled as Aer Lingus struggle to cope with the impact of the strike.
The IALPA has said it will convene a meeting of its executive in the next 24 hours to consider the Labour Court’s recommendation.
If agreed, the pay deal would cover a four-year period from January 1 2023 to the end of 2026.
IALPA officers and representatives from the Forsa trade union said they were considering the non-binding recommendations on Monday.
The pilots had initially been seeking a pay increase of 24 per cent, which they say equates to inflation since the last pay rise in 2019, but later admitted that they would be willing to consider a lower pay increase.
Captain Tighe said the executive of the union will now consider the Labour Court decision before issuing a recommendation to members on whether to accept or reject the proposals.
He said: “I’m not going to comment on the details of the recommendation, other to confirm that we have it and now the executive has to consider it.
“There are a number of our members who are actually flying today and haven’t even seen it yet so we would hope to have a full executive meeting by tomorrow afternoon.
“In the meantime, there are a couple of items in it that we need to confirm our understanding of.”
IALPA will meet today to discuss whether to recommend accepting or rejecting the Labour Court proposal.
The proposal will then be put to an electronic ballot of members.
FULL LIST OF AER LINGUS FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS
Donal Moriarty, corporate affairs officer at Aer Lingus, told RTE: “We’ve reviewed the recommendation of the Labour Court today and Aer Lingus has decided to accept it.
“There are aspects of the recommendation that we’ll need to consider over the longer term in terms of its implementation and we also need to consider the impact that this dispute has had on Aer Lingus.”
Previously, Aer Lingus said any increase over 12.25 per cent should also include an agreement on increased productivity and flexibility in return.
The company said this is something that has been agreed with other workers at the airline.
‘END IT NOW’
The Irish Travel Agents Association urged pilots to accept the terms of the recommendation.
Clare Dunne, chief executive of the ITAA, said: “We are asking both parties to accept the Labour Court’s recommendation.
“Disputes all end sooner or later – it is within their power to end it now.
“Itaa members have been working hard on behalf of their customers to minimise the disruption to them by rebooking and rerouting them to get them away on their holidays.”
