Aer Lingus has said that its planned new base in Belfast will come into operation as scheduled on December 10th with or without the agreement of the representative body for its pilots, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa).
A spokesman for the airline said last night that it was moving ahead with its plans for Belfast and had already interviewed a significant number of candidates.
The spokesman said that Ialpa, which is a branch of the trade union Impact, did not have negotiating rights for the Belfast operation and that "the planes would fly on December 10th".
In a strongly worded letter to pilots yesterday, Aer Lingus management effectively rejected proposals put forward by Ialpa earlier this week to resolve the row over the Belfast base.
Ialpa proposed that pilots for the Belfast base should be recruited in Dublin on terms currently applying in the Republic before being sent on secondment to the North. It also proposed that all collective agreements which currently applied in the Republic should also apply in Belfast and also that all contracts and disputes regarding Belfast would be governed by Irish laws.
It sought that all pilots on what is known as the merit-based seniority list at the airline would be entitled to bid for any vacancy or secondment. Ialpa also proposed that pilots recruited for Belfast would be members of the existing pension scheme.
In his letter to pilots yesterday, Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion said Ialpa's proposals served "no basis for a resolution". He said that under Ialpa's plan, not only would existing restrictive practices be applied to the Belfast operation, but new ones would be introduced.
Mr Mannion said market forces would be replaced with industrial threat as the key determinant of pay and conditions. It would also see "an unwieldy, costly, protectionist seniority system established across and between bases in different jurisdictions".
Mr Mannion said Ialpa's proposals were designed to circumvent employment law in Northern Ireland, maximise the union's ability to interfere with business decisions and ensure the Belfast operation was restricted in terms of productivity, cost-effectiveness and flexibility.
"Ialpa are asking us not to create a base, but a contrived and convoluted operation, whereby protection for current pilots is measured in terms of the inefficiency of Belfast operations."
The Ialpa document was tabled last Tuesday in response to Aer Lingus proposals to break the deadlock in the row which almost led to a 48-hour strike last month. These proposals would have allowed Aer Lingus pilots in the Republic to transfer permanently or on temporary secondment to Belfast. However they would have to accept different terms and conditions while in Belfast.
Impact assistant general secretary Michael Landers said the Ialpa executive would consider the Aer Lingus letter and respond in due course.