Aer Lingus supports third-party assistance in dispute
Minister for Transport expresses ‘grave concern’ over potential for two more days of strike action
Aer Lingus cabin crew are to strike for two days later this month: Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Aer Lingus
has said it would welcome the assistance of a third party in dealing
with its dispute with cabin crew who are planning two days of strike
action later this month.
The airline said it would
support the involvement of a third party who could establish the facts
in the current row over rosters and “direct the parties in a neutral
manner to jointly undertake the analysis required to resolve the issue”.
Cabin crew are to take the action in an intensification of the dispute over rosters at the airline.
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The trade union Impact, which
represents cabin crew, said last night that talks with the company aimed
at resolving the dispute had broken down, and it was serving management
with notice of two further one-day strikes - on Monday, June 16th and
Wednesday, June 18th.
Aer Lingus said that in
general its preference was to have an internal resolution mechanism in
place for all disputes with the company.
The planned stoppages could disrupt the travel plans of over 60,000 people.
The
airline said it had had direct talks with the representatives of cabin
crew on the issue of a roster involving five days on duty followed by
three days off -- the so called 5:3:5:3 roster -- and that it did not
understand why the trade union Impact had on Friday night issued notice
of two further days of strike action.
About
28,000 passengers were affected by a one-day strike by cabin crew over
rosters at the airline last week. The work stoppage cost the airline up
to €10 million.
The airline has said it will put
in place a plan to minimise the effects on its flight schedule of two
days of strike action later this month.
Earlier,
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said the possibility of further
industrial action at Aer Lingus was a matter of “grave concern”.
He
said the State’s industrial relations machinery remained available to
both sides in the dispute over rosters and that it should be utilised if
direct negotiations have proved unsuccessful.
“This dispute can and will only be resolved through negotiation,” Mr Varadkar said today.
Impact
yesterday said management had refused to negotiate in good faith and
instead had issued a take-it-or-leave -it proposal which it knew was
unacceptable.
In a statement to customers on its
website today, the airline said it wished to assure customers that it
would do all in its power to prevent any disruption to their travel
plans.
“We sincerely apologise to customers for the uncertainty this threatened industrial action causes.”
It said regional services were not affected in any way by the dispute.
Aer
Lingus Regional services are not affected in any way by this dispute.
Services to and from Belfast are also unaffected and will operate in
full.
“Our operations team will now commence a
planning process aimed at minimising the effects on our flight schedule.
We will inform customers via this website and all other available
channels of communication of further developments in the coming days,”
the airline said.
Cabin crew are seeking the
introduction of a fixed roster of five days on duty, followed by three
days off, similar to the arrangement in place for pilots at the airline.
Impact official Michael Landers said yesterday the union had been willing to continue talks over the weekend, but claimed that management had “walked away”.
Mr
Landers claimed management’s only proposals in three days of talks
would require staff who currently fly short and long haul flights to be
rostered solely for one or the other.
“By tabling a
clearly-unacceptable take-it-or-leave-it proposal, which would
inevitably lead to hundreds of Irish jobs being exported to the USA,
management has demonstrated that it never intended to negotiate in good
faith - and that it cares little about unemployment or the Irish
economy,” he said.
“Cabin crew are up against a
management team that seems determined on conflict rather than trying to
find practical and acceptable solutions. Therefore, we have had to
conclude that, regrettably, only further industrial action can bring
about a constructive approach from management.”
In
a statement, Aer Lingus said Impact’s “disregard for customers and
Ireland’s reputation in latest strike threat is indefensible”.
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