Stoppage at airports averted after injunction granted

Trade union Siptu has warned that the High Court injunction granted yesterday to prevent a planned strike at the State’s airports on Friday did not mean the row over pensions had been resolved.

The union signalled industrial action could take place in the future if a settlement was not reached.

However, Siptu said it would comply fully with the injunctions, which had been sought by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Ryanair.

In granting the injunctions, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan urged all those concerned to continue their efforts to find a reasonable resolution to the complex issues surrounding the pension fund, which covers Aer Lingus and DAA staff.

Pension fund deficit
The fund has a deficit of about €700 million and workers are increasingly concerned about their future benefits.

Talks on dealing with the issue have been going on for about three years. The Government recently announced the appointment of a new expert group to try find a resolution.

Although the planned strike will not go ahead, Aer Lingus cancelled 29 flights to the UK and Europe and made changes to more than 40 others today and tomorrow.

Its website said to minimise the impact on customers the airline had “retimed flights, rebooked customers on other carriers and cancelled some flights from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports”.

Aer Lingus last night said Siptu’s decision to stand down its planned work stoppage “is too little too late. The damage has already been done. The decision comes less than 36 hours before the stoppage was due to commence. The cloud of uncertainty created by the strike threat has damaged Aer Lingus’s business and disrupted thousands of our customers.”

The DAA welcomed the decision and said it had “no option” but to apply for injunctive relief to ensure Dublin and Cork airports would operate as normal on March 14th.

'Unwarranted' action
The authority described Siptu's planned action as "unwarranted" and apologised to its customers and stakeholders "for the inconvenience and stress that this unnecessary threat of industrial action has caused".

It called on Siptu to fully focus on engaging with the Government-sponsored expert panel, which it said was seeking to reach a “fair and sustainable resolution to the broader pension issue”.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar also welcomed the court ruling.

“I have said on a number of occasions that the strike should have been deferred given that the expert panel is currently engaging with all parties involved in the dispute,” he said.

Mr Justice Gilligan said he understood the frustration of the Siptu members affected.

It would be “particularly unfortunate” if the legal proceedings were used by any party to not engage fully in the efforts to achieve a “final, reasonable” resolution of the pension crisis, he stressed.

The DAA and Ryanair had separately sought injunctions, pending the outcome of the full hearing of the dispute.

The proposed action was to involve stoppages at Dublin, Cork and Shannon between 5am and 9am tomorrow.

Mr Justice Gilligan granted an injunction prohibiting the strike after finding the “legal validity” of the ballot of Siptu members at the DAA for industrial action arising out of the pension dispute was “clearly an issue”.

Applying the legal tests required to grant an injunction, he also said the balance of convenience favoured granting the injunction, as damages would not be an adequate remedy.

He stressed he was granting the injunction on grounds of issues raised by the DAA. Given his decision on the authority’s submissions, it was not necessary to go on to consider Ryanair’s application, he said.

The DAA and Ryanair argued the proposed strike was illegal and not a “valid trade dispute” as defined by the 1990 Industrial Relations Act. They said the stoppage would shut the airports, “cause havoc” and “maximum disruption”.

Siptu argued the stoppage arose out of “a bona fide trade dispute” concerning the pension rights of workers.