LRC talks today to tackle Aer Lingus dispute

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) is to meet today with management and pilots' representatives at Aer Lingus in an effort…

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) is to meet today with management and pilots' representatives at Aer Lingus in an effort to avert the dispute which could ground flights at the airline from Tuesday. Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent, reports.

Both Aer Lingus management and the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (Ialpa), which is a branch of the trade union Impact, last night accepted an invitation by the LRC to attend the meeting.

The dispute could see hundreds of pilots at Aer Lingus being suspended without pay from early next week unless they agree to co-operate with moves to facilitate the opening of a new base in Belfast.

Already seven pilots have been suspended without pay. Up to 15,000 passengers daily could be affected if Aer Lingus flights are grounded as a result of the dispute.

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The threat to Aer Lingus services comes at a time when rail passengers are also facing disruption on routes to and from the south and southwest on Monday as a result of a 24-hour stoppage by line inspection and maintenance staff.

The LRC said it was meeting the union and management in the Aer Lingus row "to assess the degree to which the current positions of the parties, or their willingness to develop those positions, makes a settlement of this matter possible".

It said it expected that both parties would "use the opportunity presented by this engagement to work constructively to find a solution to this dispute".

Both management and the union said they were attending the LRC meeting without preconditions. However, both also maintained that their positions remained unchanged.

Aer Lingus said its deadline of Monday for receipt of undertakings from pilots to agree to co-operate in the recruitment and training of candidates for the new base remained in place.

It said that pilots would be removed from the payroll by Tuesday morning if they did not provide this undertaking.

Ialpa president Evan Cullan said its policy of non-co-operation with the establishment of the Belfast base also remained in place.

Aer Lingus commercial director Enda Corneille said the company was not going to engage in talks about talks, but rather about the implementation of its plan for the Belfast base.

He said the company was still working on the basis that it would be providing a full service next week. If there were indications that it would not be able to do this then it would concentrate on contingency plans.

Siptu, which represents more than 1,700 other Aer Lingus workers, said it was extremely concerned about what would happen to its members if the pilots' dispute resulted in a stoppage on Tuesday.

Mr Cullan said Ialpa was continuing the process of consultation with its members on the ultimatum set by the company. Ialpa believed that the company was planning for a lock-out which could last for six to eight weeks, he said.

However, the company denied it had any such plan.

A spokesman for the trade union Impact, which also represents about 1,500 cabin crew at Aer Lingus, said any mass suspension of pilots could place these staff "in an extremely difficult if not impossible position next week".

Ialpa is seeking a role in negotiating the terms and conditions to apply to pilots at the new base in Belfast. It has particular concerns at the company's plans to introduce a new form of pension scheme for those working in the Belfast operation.

It said, however, that it was prepared to accept that the Belfast operation would have a lower cost base for pilots.

Aer Lingus said that the dispute was about the future of the company and who was running and driving the business. It said that the pilots were seeking an effective veto over the company in terms of the development of bases.