A strike which had threatened to cause widespread disruption at the country’s three main airports on Thursday has been called off.
Following a three-hour meeting this afternoon Siptu representatives at the Dublin Airport Authority, which runs Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, decided to defer the planned action on Thursday and to attend conciliation talks at the Labour Relations Commission tomorrow.
In a statement Siptu it had accepted the invitation to attend talks at the Labour Relations Commission tomorrow on the dispute over the payment of increments at the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
“It is not invoking industrial action and is calling on the DAA to comply with all existing agreements, including those relating to the payment of increments,” a statement said.
The DAA welcomed Siptu's announcement but said it was "disappointed" the local branch had decided to wait until 4pm today to make the decision, given that the company had accepted the invitation to talks last Friday.
"Siptu's decision to wait a further three days before deciding to enter talks caused unnecessary distress and, in many cases, additional expense for the travelling public. The uncertainty created by this delay is not what the Irish economy needs at this time," the DAA said in a statement.
"At no point has the DAA stated that the increments will not be paid. Increment payments are normally made in the middle of April and backdated. The company has told staff that it is pausing the payment of any salary increases, pending the outcome of a cost recovery programme."
Although the local Siptu branch at the DAA had served strike notice on the company last week in a row over the payment of increments, the union's leadership at national level had said that it had not sanctioned the move.
The threatened strike at the airports caused significant embarrassment to the Siptu leadership at a time when it had just entered new social partnership talks with the Government on economic recovery programme.
Earlier today Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary strongly criticised the threatened airport strikes and called on the Army to be brought in to provide critical services in the event of a strike.
“There is no place in this recession for Ireland’s airports being shut down by a bunch of headbangers in the public sector unions at the DAA airports,” Mr O’Leary said.
“If these loonies intend to hold Irish tourism and the Irish economy to ransom, then the Government should respond in similar measure by cutting their pay or making 12 per cent of these people redundant."