Aer Lingus management and representatives of its pilots are to hold direct talks today in the latest attempt to resolve the row over the airline's plan to establish a new base in Belfast.
It is expected that Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion will participate in the talks, along with three other members of the management team. The union side will be headed by Shay Cody, deputy general secretary of the trade union Impact.
It is understood that immediately after the meeting, Aer Lingus plans to publish the terms and conditions to apply for pilot and cabin crew at its new base in Belfast. Sources said that the company had received 1,100 applicants for the 100 posts on offer.
Talks between Aer Lingus and the Irish Airline Pilots Association branch of Impact at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), which took place for several days last week, were adjourned on Friday.
Today's talks will be the first time the airline and union have met directly since the row over the Belfast base broke out last month. At the LRC last week, the parties were in separate rooms.
Informed sources said last night that the parties appeared to be still far apart on the central issue over whether the union should have a role in negotiating pay and conditions for pilots to be employed at the new base in Belfast.
Aer Lingus has said that it did not believe the union had any role in negotiating terms and conditions for staff outside the Republic.
However, the union has said the current talks would involve discussions on the terms and conditions to apply in Belfast.
The talks at the LRC averted a planned 48-hour strike by nearly 500 pilots at Aer Lingus last month. The union says pilots in Belfast would be employed under worse terms and conditions than those applying in the Republic.
Aer Lingus has said that pilots in Belfast will receive higher pay, at the earlier points of the scale at least, than those in the Republic.
However, pilots in Belfast will not have access to the existing defined-benefit pension scheme.
It is proposed that a defined contribution scheme will operate in Belfast.
Aer Lingus is also seeking to introduce more flexible working arrangements for pilots in Belfast.