Warning of industrial action at Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus is facing possible industrial action over a decision by the airline to withdraw unilaterally from an internal dispute resolution mechanism, the trade union Fórsa has warned .

The chairwoman of the Fórsa trade union's services and enterprise division Gillian White said the move represented a fundamental breach of an agreement reached to resolve a previous dispute over pensions.

Speaking at the union’s services and enterprise division conference in Galway on Thursday she maintained that management at Aer Lingus walked away from the internal disputes resolution board “because it was not getting its way on everything”.

The airline contended that the internal dispute resolution mechanism at the company had been used as a tool to slow down the implementation of business changes.

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It said it could not continue to absorb the annual costs associated with the internal dispute resolution board “without extracting real value”

The Fórsa conference debated and passed an emergency motion that called on the union to “take action to ensure that Aer Lingus complied with a union-management agreement covering staff consultation”.

Fórsa said that internal dispute resolution boards were now common in the commercial semi-state sector and aviation and that they provided a forum for discussions and staff input on business decisions that may impact on jobs, pay and working conditions.

Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk said the union regarded the move by Aer Lingus as a breach of a collective agreement.

“Alterations to a collective agreement require the agreement of the parties and Fórsa does not accept that Aer Lingus can unilaterally alter a collective agreement.

“Fórsa will continue to refer appropriate cases to the internal dispute resolution board. We reserve the right to take whatever action we deem appropriate in order to ensure compliance with this collective agreement,” she said.

Aer Lingus , in a letter to the union, said while it had introduced the internal dispute resolution board model in good faith it 2015, it did not believe that it had worked.

"The internal dispute resolution board has been used as a tool to frustrate and slow down normal business change. The vast majority of cases that came before the internal dispute resolution board were subsequently referred onward to the Workplace Relations Commission. "

“We remain determined to develop a mature professional relationship with our union partners, that is capable of resolving matters through direct dialogue with local management in the first instance and to move away from the multi-layered model of an internal dispute resolution board model that the majority bypassed and the few abused.”

Ms White told the conference: “It’s inevitable that, if this unnecessary and ill-advised act is not reversed, it will be more difficult to conduct productive industrial relations, and deal constructively with the conflicts that inevitably arise in this highly competitive sector.”

She said workers across the private and semi-state sector - including in telecoms, aviation and postal services - were facing the challenge of increased competition, new regulatory regimes, structural changes and, in some cases, the threat of privatisation.

“For many of them, including aviation, recovery and economic growth themselves bring challenges for workers as management seeks more and more productivity as labour markets tighten. But labour market pressures bring opportunities to improve pay, conditions and union representation too.

"For example, it is clear that pilot shortages - coupled with the long-standing and courageous campaign of our Ialpa [Irish Air Line Pilots' Association] branch - are what drove Ryanair to talk to this union at the end of last year.

“There is a very long road to travel to normalise collective bargaining in the company. But I think this conference will rightly want to applaud the work and commitment of Ialpa and our officials in bringing about this important breakthrough,” she said.

In a statement on Thursday the airline said: “Aer Lingus has moved fully from the semi-state sector to the private sector. The model of an internal resolution board, while prevalent in the state or semi-state sector, is not prevalent in the private sector.

“In that context, Aer Lingus is determined to develop a mature professional relationship with our union partners. We want to be capable of resolving matters through direct dialogue with local management in the first instance. The multi-layered model of an internal disputes resolution board was increasingly being bypassed in favour of the Workplace Relations Commission.”