Ryanair pilots to meet union officials to discuss slow progress of pay claim

Ryanair pilots will meet trade union officials on Tuesday to discuss the slow progress of a pay claim they made to the airline.

Directly employed members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) at Ryanair submitted a pay claim to the carrier in February, and are said to be angry at the company’s response.

Ialpa and several Ryanair pilot representatives will meet officials from Fórsa, the union to which the pilots’ group is affiliated, on Tuesday to discuss a possible response to the airline’s unwillingness to move on their claim.

The pay claim is separate to the issues over which pilots at the airline held a series of strikes during last year’s peak summer holiday season, which included seniority, leave and base allocation.

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Fórsa confirmed on Monday that the meeting between its officials, Ialpa and the Ryanair pilots was due to take place, but the union did not say what action was likely to result.

News of unrest amongst Irish pilots comes as the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) prepares to ballot its members at Ryanair for industrial action, potentially including strikes, over pay and conditions.

British pilots will begin voting this week, and the result is due to be known early next month.

Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said that the organisation had not been able to make any progress with Ryanair on any of the issues that it had raised with the airline.

Ryanair did not comment on reports that Irish pilots are meeting on Tuesday as it said that it was in a closed period ahead of publishing financial results next week.

Meanwhile British Airways (BA) will go to court on Tuesday to prevent its pilots from striking in a dispute over pay.

Pilots at BA, part of International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) , which also owns Aer Lingus, have rejected a three-year pay deal with the carrier.

If the company fails to get a court order barring the pilots from taking industrial action, Balpa could begin striking on August 7th.

It is not known at this stage what services would suffer should BA pilots strike. The airline flies between Dublin and London, while Irish travellers connect to some of its long-haul services at Heathrow.