SIPTU has sanctioned renewed industrial action by baggage handlers at Ryanair if the company does not bring its wages into line with other airlines at Dublin Airport.
An independent study into the dispute carried out for the Government's inquiry team found Ryanair baggage handlers were paid £11 to £5,000 a year less than some of its competitors. Ryanair disputes the figures but says if they can be proven, it will pay the difference, including back money.
The SIPTU president, Mr Jimmy Somers, said yesterday the union had decided it would "support the decision of its members in Ryanair to initiate further industrial action in pursuit of their just claims, if the company fails to pay up within a reasonable period".
SIPTU did not believe "the workers in Ryanair should be expected to carry the full weight of the fight for the right to professional trade union representation, on top of their more immediate and pressing concerns". It was now a matter for the Government to address union recognition.
He accused Ryanair of "intransigence" and "churlish" behaviour towards bodies such as the Labour Court, the Irish Productivity Centre which examined pay rates at Ryanair on behalf of the Government inquiry team, and towards the inquiry team itself. "Regrettably Ryanair chose to threaten the inquiry team from the outset and deny it any role in resolving the dispute," he said.
Its decision to question the IPC study was "particularly inappropriate given the bizarre behaviour this company has engaged in to date, its size and financial success and given that its wealthy directors have again made huge sums with the recent launch on the London stock exchange".
Mr Somers warned the company, and the other social partners, that the voluntary system of industrial relations and social partnership would not survive "where companies adopt extreme positions akin to insisting on driving down the right hand side of the road when they so wish".