Ryanair to challenge Labour Court finding

Ryanair has secured leave from the High Court to challenge a finding by the Labour Court that there is a trade dispute between Ryanair and the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) concerning Ryanair's Dublin-based pilots.

Mr Martin Hayden SC, for Ryanair, was granted leave by Ms Justice Macken to bring proceedings challenging a number of findings of the court arising from the decision by the IMPACT trade union, of which IALPA is a part, to ask the Labour Court to investigate the alleged trade dispute.

Ryanair contends there is no trade dispute between it and IMPACT and that IMPACT is not entitled to "intermeddle" in Ryanair's affairs.

After considering the matter, the Labour Court decided on January 25th last that there is a trade dispute and it is that and other findings which Ryanair seeks to overturn in its judicial review proceedings.

Ryanair also wants orders quashing the Labour Court's decision that it was not Ryanair's practice to engage in collective bargaining and that there was/is no operative internal dispute procedure in place within the private airline.

In an affidavit, Mr Eddie Wilson, director of personnel and inflight with Ryanair, said IMPACT had asked the Labour Court in November last to investigate an alleged trade dispute between it and Ryanair over the airline's Dublin-based pilots.

Ryanair accepted the right of all employees to join, or not join, trade unions but it did not accept that it, as an employer, was compelled to negotiate with any trade union. It had been the policy and practice of Ryanair for many years to deal directly with its employees without the "intermeddling" of trade unions and this system had served Ryanair employees "very well", he said.

Employees elected representatives to Employee Representative Committees and those ERCs negotiated directly with Ryanair in relation to all terms and conditions of employment. In the case of Dublin pilots, it was for them to elect representatives onto the pilots ERC. Since the retirement of the pilot members of the pilot ERC in August 2004, the pilots had not appointed new representatives.

In those circumstances, Ryanair strenuously objected to the referral of the matter to the Labour Court. The airline believed the court had no jurisdiction to carry out the investigation.

Ryanair contended that the decision of the Labour Court that there was a trade dispute in existence was unreasonable and one which could not have been arrived at by any reasonable adjudicator of fact, Mr Wilson said. It also breached Ryanair's right to fair procedures and to natural and constitutional justice.