Aer Lingus docked pay from pilots following their recent industrial action in a dispute that ended this week with their acceptance of 17.75 per cent pay increase, it has emerged.
Members of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa), part of trade union Fórsa, this week ended their long-running row with the carrier over pay after 85 per cent of them voted for the increase, tabled by the Labour Court.
However, it has emerged that Aer Lingus docked pilots’ pay as a consequence of their industrial action, which included an eight-hour strike but mostly consisted of a work-to-rule that involved union members refusing duties outside their rosters.
Payslips seen by The Irish Times show deductions marked “Industrial Action”. The amounts vary, according to union sources, who say some were deducted more than €1,500 and that most pilots were affected.
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They also maintain that pilots who turned up for work after the eight-hour strike by Ialpa members ended at 1pm on Saturday June 29th had pay deducted, even though they had fulfilled duties as normal. Employers do not pay workers while they are on strike.
Sources say that other reasons for deductions included “failure to join”, a sanction used by airlines when pilots fail to show up to operate flights for which they have been rostered.
Union officials flagged that as a concern as they debated whether to recommend acceptance of the Labour Court proposals to members two weeks ago. A failure-to-join sanction is serious.
Aer Lingus did not comment on the matter. It is understood the company’s position is that any deductions related to industrial action.
Union figures say that Ialpa may raise these cases with the Workplace Relations Commission. The company also has its own internal procedures for dealing with staff issues and grievances.
Ialpa’s work-to-rule involved pilots refusing out-of-hours work, overtime or changes to rosters, as well as not taking management calls to request that they do any of those.
Pilots went on strike from 5am to 1pm on June 29th in response to what their union said were management attempts to escalate the dispute.
The industrial action denied Aer Lingus the flexibility needed to operate its full summer schedule over the two weeks that it lasted from Wednesday June 26th.
In response, Aer Lingus cancelled 610 flights, 573 of them several days ahead of schedule, to preserve as many services as possible, and 37 on the day, hitting more than 90,000 passengers in all.
The advance-notice cancellations ran several days beyond the end of industrial action 16 days ago as it was unclear when the union would suspend it while its executive considered the Labour Court proposal.
Aer Lingus was able to reaccommodate and re-book many passengers affected, while others took refunds.
The company stated several times that the dispute hurt its reputation but management believes it handled communicating with passengers, and refunding and reaccommodating them, more efficiently than during previous crises.
Aer Lingus has yet to say how much the dispute has cost the airline.
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