The Labour Court is using powers it has under the Industrial Relations Act 1990 in its latest effort to break the deadlocked Aer Lingus pilots’ pay dispute.
Following nine hours of talks on Monday, the court told the company and the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), part of trade union Fórsa, that it would exercise its power under section 26(5) of the Act to formally intervene in the row which has prompted the cancellation of almost 400 flights.
That provision allows the court to sidestep the normal process, where the two parties ask it to intervene, and decide itself that there are grounds to step in to “investigate” an industrial dispute.
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Normally, employers and unions attempt to resolve disputes through their own procedures, then go to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). If this does not work, they jointly ask the Labour Court to deal with the issue.
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In this case, the court has decided not to wait for a joint referral and to instead intervene to find a solution.
That involves both parties filing submissions by close of business on Tuesday before attending a one-day hearing on Wednesday.
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Following that, the court will issue a recommendation on how best to deal with the dispute. That will likely include a call on the pilots to end or suspend their work to rule.
Both parties will need to accept that recommendation in order for whatever solution the court proposes to be workable. If one or both do not do so, then the dispute will continue and the union is likely to step up its industrial action.
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Ialpa’s members have been on a work to rule for a week, refusing all out-of-hours work and roster changes, while they also downed tools for an eight-hour strike on Saturday morning.
Ialpa has signalled that further strikes are likely if it decides to step up industrial action.
Aer Lingus and Ialpa have already gone through the various stages in an effort to resolve the dispute. That included an internal pay tribunal which heard the pilots’ claim for 20 per cent-plus pay rises.
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The airline offered 12.25 per cent, discounted to 8.5 per cent to account for concessions on summer leave, which the pilots rejected.
The dispute then went to the WRC, after which the parties referred it to the Labour Court, which recommended that Ialpa accept 12.25 per cent and return to the WRC to thrash out a deal on several sticking points.
Pilots rejected this and voted for industrial action. That prompted an invitation from the Labour Court last week to both sides to attend separate meetings, after which it held fire on intervening.
Subsequent talks between the company and union broke down so, with an escalation in industrial action looming, the Labour Court asked the two parties to what was their third session there on Monday.
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