Aer Lingus said it intends to operate a full schedule from all its bases from today after planned strike action by pilots was averted following talks at the weekend.
The company said today that following "extensive engagement" between the airline, Irish Airline Pilots' Association and Impact unions over the weekend, the immediate threat of industrial action had been removed.
The airline is to “buy back” leave days from pilots over the summer in an effort to ease pressures on its staff roster arrangements.
The financial incentive to pilots to give up their time off is part of an overall deal reached early yesterday morning which averted threatened industrial action at the airline.
Under the agreement, which was brokered at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), every leave day worked attracts a premium payment of 0.5 per cent of salary. A new longer-term roster involving pilots working five days on and three days off will also be implemented on an experimental basis by the company from next winter.
In a third element of the deal, pilots at the airline’s Gatwick base in the UK are to be offered loyalty bonus payments of £6,000. The deal would see pilots in Belfast receiving a 3 per cent pay increase, backdated to January. There would also be some revised roster arrangements, in a bid to stem an increasing number of resignations from the company.
The trade union Impact, which represents pilots at Aer Lingus, said industrial action scheduled to take place from today in Dublin and Cork was being suspended on foot of the deal.
Notice of industrial action served on the company by pilots in Belfast and Gatwick by Impact will remain in place until members there have had an opportunity to consider the new settlement proposals. Aer Lingus said on foot of the agreement, it intended to operate a full schedule from all its bases from today. “Customers who have already changed bookings to another date may change back to their original planned date of travel if they so wish via aerlingus.com.”
The industrial action would have caused disruption for up to 30,000 Aer Lingus passengers a day. The industrial action was being stood down until July 1st to allow time to implement agreed proposals on the summer rosters.
By buying back leave days Aer Lingus will have more pilots available than previously anticipated to operate the peak summer roster.
The dispute centred on claims by pilots that rosters were excessively onerous and they were being asked to work five or six days in a row with only one day off before embarking on another five or six days on duty.
The settlement proposals, drawn up by director of conciliation at the LRC Kevin Foley, state that a leave buy-back scheme and a relaxation of meal break rules would be employed to deal with issues such as pilots having only one day off between periods of duty and in relation to pilots finishing duties late at night and having to resume work early the following morning.
The proposals state the parties have agreed a new fixed five-day on, three-day off roster will be put in place on an experimental basis for next winter, but there are still disagreements on the technicalities of how this will be implemented.