Aer Lingus Flight Crew Industrial relations thread 2024

Indeed, and of course the opposite is also true, hard to see mgmnt forgetting the loss of revenue, the hundreds of cancelled flights, the disruption to thousands of passengers, the adverse publicity that ensued, the cost of hire`ins, the 8 hour strike at the start of the school holidays.

Might cause a bit of sourness in the C-suites of IAG I would sugges, but hey..maybe I'm wrong.

Probably been asked many times, but am I right in saying that if one of your flights is cancelled due to this strike that you’re entitled to EU 261 compensation even if you re-book?

What’s the best way to claim do you know? I had to move my flights because EI cancelled one of the legs and now they are saying they won’t process a claim as it’s not within 15 days before the flight. Also got charged fare difference even though they said they’d waive that charge.

True, but hard to see most of that management team being around in 5 years time to hold the grudge, most of them will have moved on to pastures new.

Possibly.

I forgot the most important cohorts of all-the travelling public and those poor lads and lasses who weren’t working to rule putting together a schedule to minimise disruption and dealing with disrupted passengers.

How do you know this they have agreed to talk an the strike is still on for sat?

That's the average of those currently planning an increase. But only approximately 50% are. So if people aren't getting that they shouldn't be surprised.

I'm not entirely sure how useful it is to compare with other jobs. Considering the massive difference in pay scales.

Increments are all well and good until you reach the top of them. Then you’ve a pay freeze until you leave? So if you give a pay rise is that a new step or do you lift the whole scale? If you add a new step then when does step 1 become redundant as it’s now 10 years old?

They were offered 12%?

Interesting to see seasoned IR troubleshooter Kieran Mulvey's piece in today's Indo. Hard to argue with his overall analysis. https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/kieran-mulvey-parties-in-aer-lingus-dispute-must-get-around-table-before-serious-damage-is-done/a245623512.html

Text of Mulvey piece is:

"To paraphrase Jane Austen, “it is a truth universally acknowledged” that all industrial disputes are resolved eventually.

It is the pain, financial and otherwise, for the parties involved – and the impact of this dispute on the travelling public, on the hospitality industry and on the wider business community – that requires that there is a cessation of hostilities for the good of our economy and our international reputation.

We are lucky to have effective and respected statutory dispute-resolution bodies. As a veteran of many disputes in Aer Lingus and latterly the pilots dispute in Ryanair, I am conscious these can become fractious and on occasion personally difficult for the main protagonists.

Aer Lingus has always been a “family” employment milieu, but this to a large degree dissipated after the airline passed from state ownership.

That these pay and conditions negotiations have dragged on for almost two years has not helped matters, allowing a degree of rancour to enter the exchanges between the parties over who did what in the course of the dispute. Truth, like war, is the first casualty in industrial relations.

The Labour Court, under its vastly experienced chairman Kevin Foley, is faced with the unenviable challenge of two parties who are widely divergent in their respective stated positions, which are repeated ad nauseam in all media commentary. It feels like an echo chamber of claim and counter-claim.

Also, against this immediate claim by pilots is the broader context of previous settlements for all other staff in Aer Lingus; the corporate view of the airline within IAG; the pulling of two new aircraft from the fleet; and the reputational damage both sides are suffering.

As to the current claim and its prospects of success, it is something both parties will have to manoeuvre around and creates particular difficulties for the Labour Court in the context of the wider public and private sector.

The stakes are high for both sides, as they are for the travelling public, who are facing serious costs for family holidays, disruption and increasing frustration.

In the medium term, the stakes are equally high for Aer Lingus itself, its employees and the highly competitive North American market. This dispute cannot drag through the summer, and the idea of passengers, in whatever jurisdiction, queuing at departure gates for Aer Lingus flights and then finding them suddenly cancelled is both a recipe for chaos and unconscionable.

Sometimes in industrial disputes, when you look in to the abyss and find the abyss looking back at you, it’s time to take several steps back from the ledge and rethink. Both sides need to do this before there is further escalation.

Although Tuesday’s limited engagement did not bode well and the mantra of the respective parties being quoted again will not reassure the travelling public, common sense – as the court stated in its interim recommendations – must prevail, and nothing in industrial relations is non-negotiable.

The quicker the parties re-engage with the court, the better. They can then get down to collective bargaining and the resolution of this most harmful of disputes."

Everything should be operating as normal on Saturday morning, just no mainline EI flights operating until 1pm.

The picket question goes further, will BA pilots cross an EI picket line? Legally I doubt they can picket on DAA property, they are probably limited to Shamrock House

The answers on the website

Will Aer Lingus Regional flights still operate as scheduled?

Please use virtual cursor to read the content.

Yes. Aer Lingus Regional flights, operated by Emerald Airlines, will not be subject to any industrial action. Aer Lingus Regional flight numbers are in the range EI 3000 – EI 3999.

Members of unions who havent given strike notice have no legal protection if they choose not to cross a picket line. They may choose to take uncertified sick leave to avoid crossing a picket.