Aer Lingus Flight Crew Industrial relations thread 2024

They are indeed lol

wow, with that result it turns out there was a lot of hot air and lies here from loads of posters about narrow body pilots being shafted. This place used to be a reliable source of aviation news from knowledgable posters but I’m questioning it now. I actually foolishly believed it and booked an awkward transatlantic flight to avoid EI and a likely escalation of the strike based on posts on here

Not unexpected

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/07/26/aer-lingus-docks-pilots-pay-over-industrial-action/

Payslips seen by The Irish Times show deductions marked “Industrial Action”. The amounts vary, according to union sources, who say some were deducted more than €1,500 and that most pilots were affected.

While it’s true the company can deduct wages for participation in industrial action, they have to give the employee notice in writing explicitly pointing out the reasons for both the deduction and the amount deducted prior of any deductions taking place. I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but it’s been articulated that the airline didn’t provide notice, so make of that what you will.

I dunno, I’m just quoting what the actual law is around it, maybe there’s a contract stipulation which is enough to be considered notice 🤷🏻‍♂️

This isnt over yet

Bit of Sabre rattling Mr Tee, that’s how I would see it.

https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/aer-lingus-re-engaging-with-iag-management-on-a321xlr-after-pilot-deal/159456.article?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=Sendible&utm_campaign=RSS

Comments on the productivity secured with the deal by CEO.

A very interesting report providing detail from the Aer Lingus CEO Lynn Embleton on productivity arrangements which IALPA consistently denied and which none of the Irish media reported. She says

the deal agreed with pilots, which involves a pay rise of 17.75% and followed industrial action at the carrier, brings two pieces of “structural change” that should address the parent company’s previous concerns.

“The first one is a new pay scale, or cap on the pay scale that applies to all narrowbody flying,” she states.

“That not only gives us the confidence to look at more narrowbodies – XLRs across the Atlantic – but it also means we get more productivity for the pilots that are flying between Europe, so they can do European flights and then they can do transatlantic flights, and that productivity benefit is going to be very useful to us in the future.”

Furthermore, the deal brings productivity improvements by removing a “crew agreement” that gave pilots more time off in summer and shorter working days.

“It was something they asked for several years ago but it did come at quite a significant productivity cost,” Embleton says. “We put it at around 7% productivity.”

Aer Lingus can therefore look forward to “better unit costs” in the future, she insists.

Embleton further notes that the pilot agreement is a four-year one, rather than the usual three-year deal, bringing more certainty to the business.

These productivity gains will be explained to the other Aer Lingus unions who are now - of course! - about to demand pay rises in line with the pilots

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-could-face-new-pay-claim-from-other-staff-after-deal-to-end-pilots-strike/a506087908.html

Not trying to be inflamatory here, but it's genuinely hard for me to understand why the salary scale on an A330 is greater than that of an A320.

Yes, it's a bigger plane, but at the end of the day you're sitting at the pointy end of an Airbus product and doing the same job. Does the fact that there are a few more seats down the back really merit earning more money above and beyond what seniority would normally do?

Isn’t that the same as the manager of a small business getting paid less than the manager of a large business ? Many airlines of fleet specific salaries of aircraft weight based salaries. I can never earn the maximum salary in my company as the machine I fly isn’t big enough.