A GENERAL meeting of Aer Lingus pilots is being held tonight decide whether to hold a strike in pursuit of a 17 per cent rise. The increase was awarded to the pilots by an independent tribunal, but the airline is refusing to accept the tribunal's findings.
If, as expected, tonight's meeting, organised by the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA), agrees to a strike ballot, then industrial action could begin within 10 to 12 days.
The chairman of IALPA's Aer Lingus group, Mr Dermot Rafferty, said both sides entered tribunal process "willingly, repeated their commitment it on a number of occasions". He called on the company to "do honourable thing now and agree to implement the first phase of the award, a 5 per cent increase on October 1st next and the remaining phases when they are due."
He described the company's attitude to the tribunal findings as "a dishonourable rebuff to the pilots' loyalty to the airline during its recent difficulties. The Aer Lingus pilots were the first to sign up to the Cahill [rescue] plan".
As a result they had accepted redundancies, forgone pay increases due under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, waived a year's pay increments and co operated with "a host of changes in working conditions", he said.
"All this was done to ensure the survival of Aer Lingus and in return the company promised a serious review of pilots' pay, a promise it has now turned its back on."
However, the Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs, Mr Dan Loughrey, said last night both sides had always known the tribunal's findings were not binding. It was now open to both sides to negotiate.
The company was willing to enter talks with a commitment to conclude them within two months if IALPA agrees, Mr Loughrey said. He said the tribunal's findings were "basically flawed". It had not, for instance, taken into account a Coopers and Lybrand report commissioned by the company before reaching its conclusions.
The company's invitation to talks remained on the table, Mr Loughrey said. He would not be drawn on how the company would react to industrial action. "We'll have to consider developments as they happen."