Ryanair has lost a High Court challenge to the report of a Government-appointed inquiry into the dispute regarding the pay and conditions of the airline's baggage handlers which led to the closure of Dublin Airport two years ago. The report included criticism of Ryanair regarding its handling of the dispute.
The airline claimed the report by the inquiry team of Mr Philip Flynn, former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and Mr Dan McAuley, former chairman of the Labour Relations Commission, contained "manifest errors" and was irrational and unreasonable.
The inquiry team had been asked by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, to inquire into the dispute, which led to the closure of the airport for the first time in its 60-year history on March 7th/8th 1998.
In his reserved judgment on Ryanair's challenge yesterday, Mr Justice Kearns said the inquiry team had an extremely limited function and, at Ryanair's own insistence, could not attempt mediation or dispute-resolution. They could not impose duties, penalties, liabilities or consequences of any sort.
Ryanair's application failed because there was "no decision" by the inquiry team and even if there was, "no legal right" of Ryanair was affected as a result, the judge found.
Mr Justice Kearns said the airport's closure caused massive disruption to airline passengers and airport-based companies. The closure resulted from the sudden deterioration of an ongoing industrial dispute between SIPTU and Ryanair concerning pay and conditions of employment of Ryanair employees engaged as ground handling agents. The dispute escalated with reported incidents of verbal abuse and intimidation, picketing at entrances to the airport and protests in the vicinity of aircraft. A situation of virtual chaos obtained at the airport on March 7th, the judge said.
Mr Justice Kearns held that the matters raised by Ryanair were not justiciable (capable of being reviewed by the court) because there was no decision by the inquiry team susceptible to being quashed in the sense that no legal rights of Ryanair were affected by what was a mere fact-finding report.
He was completely satisfied the inquiry team, along with the Irish Productivity Centre (which undertook on behalf of the inquiry a study of pay and conditions of Ryanair ground handlers and three airport-based companies), were completely fair in the manner they discharged their remit.
He did not accept they had any further obligation to provide Ryanair with an opportunity to address any possible adverse findings which the ultimate report might contain.