Aer Lingus cabin crew call off strikes next week

Cabin crew at Aer Lingus have called off strikes planned for next Monday and Wednesday.

The move followed around 8 hours of talks at the Labour Court.

It was estimated that 35,000 people each day would have been affected had the strikes gone ahead.

The trade union Impact indicated that sufficient progress had been made to allow for the work stoppages to be called off.

The Labour Court is expected to issue a recommendation tomorrow on the row between cabin crew and management at the airline over roster s.

A strike late last month by cabin crew distrupted the travel plans of 28,000 passengers and cost Aer Lingus an estimated €10 million.

Informed sources said that the Labour Court recommendation was likely to include provision for the introduction on a trial basis of the fixed roster involving five days on duty followed by three days off.

In a statement the union said: “The cabin crew branch of Impact has agreed to defer next week’s strike action at Aer Lingus following progress during a Labour Court engagement today.”

In a bulletin notice to members , cabin crew branch chair Angela McNeela said that its executive had agreed, following a request from the Labour Court, that the strike action planned next week would be deferred to allow consideration of an interim recommendation.

The union said that the branch committee’s decision was based on an assessment that sufficient progress had been made today during the engagement with the Labour Court.

Cabin crew at the airline had contended that existing rosters were erratic, exhausting and caused with their family lives.

Earlier yesterday  Aer Lingus had called on the union to call off the planned strikes and said that its customers did not deserve to be held to ransom.

At the weekend Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller warned staff that their job security and working conditions were being damaged every day the company is hit by strike action.

In a letter sent to the airline's 4,000 employees in the wake of the announcement of two 24-hour work stoppages planned for next week, he said they enjoyed some of the best working conditions and employment security in Ireland and in the aviation industry internationally. He said staff should understand "the irrevocable consequences of another strike".

He said there was potential to create a further 150 new jobs at the airline for next year if there was industrial peace and certainty around resource planning.