Ryanair yesterday lost a challenge to an order from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) to change baggage handling procedures. The company is to appeal and has been given a stay on the order. Judge James McNulty rejected the airline's claim that compliance with the order would be detrimental to the safety of its baggage handlers.
The HSA, acting on a complaint from SIPTU, found handlers were at risk of injury because it did not use a conveyor belt. Its handlers lift bags by hand from carts into the hold or from the hold onto trucks. The judge refused the HSA costs, saying the matter needed to be tested and the issues were finely balanced.
