Ibec strongly critical of air traffic controllers threatened action

Employers group Ibec has strongly criticised the planned 24-hour strike next Thursday by air traffic controllers which it said would be in breach of the national agreement Towards 2016, as well as separate deal with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

If the action goes ahead, all flights into and out of Ireland will be grounded. About 90,000 air passengers could be affected.

Ibec said there was "absolutely no justification" for the proposed industrial action. It said the row was about money, that there was no shortage of air traffic controllers working for the IAA and that the Irish air traffic control system was not dependent on overtime. The trade union Impact has argued that the row centres on a shortage of staff, but the IAA says it is about overtime/call-in payments and rosters.

Ibec director of industrial relations Brendan McGinty said that the current system, where air traffic controllers are called in for additional duties - which Impact said is voluntary - formed part of a deal between the union and the IAA in 2001 for which staff received a 17 per cent pay increase.

In Labour Relations Commission talks, air traffic controllers sought an €11,000 payment for being on call 12 days a year with an obligation to work only six.

"This works out at €1,833 per attendance. They are also demanding €125 an hour for any attendance over and above that level, including a minimum six hours payment for any attendance. This would amount to over €1,000 for an average duty and €750 for a one- to-two hour extension of a duty."

Those on the scale maximum, Mr McGinty said, were paid €107,884, with an additional pension contribution of 31 per cent, giving a total package of €141,328, excluding overtime. Last December, he added, controllers received a 5 per cent increase above the national agreement.

Impact said that the primary problem related to staff shortages and that any deal that did not address this and sought to institutionalise overtime ran the risk of being roundly rejected.