The Supreme Court has reserved its decision on a final legal bid by former TEAM Aer Lingus workers to be treated on the same basis as comparable Aer Lingus staff who remained at the airline.

The hearing concluded yesterday of an appeal by former TEAM workers against a High Court decision limiting to four years the period of time for which, from their return to Aer Lingus in 1998 following the collapse of TEAM and its sale to FLS, the workers were either entitled to be put on maintenance work or given its monetary value.

The workers say that the four-year limit is artificial and that their entitlements are enduring.

They claim that, when they returned to Aer Lingus, they should have been put on work equivalent to what they left and were also entitled to the same pay and conditions as their peers who stayed with Aer Lingus.

Some of the workers were not reinstated as engineers and are instead working in areas attracting less pay. Others have left the company.

The workers say that assurances by Aer Lingus management that all those who went to TEAM would continue to be Aer Lingus employees and would retire as Aer Lingus employees should be honoured.

In October 2002, the High Court ruled the plaintiffs were entitled "for a reasonable time" to be paid at the same level as engineers who did not go to TEAM.