THE DUBLIN Airport Authority is to ask the High Court on Friday to restrain threatened industrial action by Siptu that would effectively close Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.
The authority was yesterday granted leave to give Siptu short notice of its intention to seek injunctions restraining the proposed strike actions.
Brian O’Moore SC, for the DAA, told Ms Justice Maureen Clarke that the authority had been given notice of the action by Siptu on September 11th following a ballot of members in July.
Mr O’Moore said there were issues between the trade union and the Dublin Airport Authority in connection with a pension scheme known as the Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme.
Negotiations had been ongoing under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission with Siptu to resolve these issues.
Mr O’Moore told the court that the DAA was involved in separate agreements relating to two critical groups of workers employed by the airport authority – the fire and police service and the security search unit.
These agreements provided that Siptu would not engage in any strike, walk-out or suspension of work, and that all work issues would be resolved through the Labour Court and the labour relations mechanism.
Mr O’Moore said there were ongoing negotiations relating to the pension issues and the DAA claim that it would be a breach of existing agreements if any industrial action was to go ahead.
Ms Justice Clarke said it appeared to the court that the DAA had a reasonable cause of action and it was appropriate in the public interest that she should grant short service of the authority’s intention to seek injunctions next Friday.
Mr O’Moore said that Siptu had been told by the DAA on Monday that if the authority did not hear from the union by 9am on Tuesday the authority would make its application to the court.
The court allowed service to be made on the union by e-mail and on Dermot O’Loughlin, the union official who had notified the authority airport of the proposed work stoppages from next Monday.