British Midlands employees are continuing their strike action at Dublin airport today over dissatisfaction with the terms of a package for transferring to another company.
More than 150 Irish British Midland baggage handlers and some cabin crew are due to be transferred to Gatwick Haulage International in a move guaranteeing existing pay and conditions. Under the company’s proposed package staff will receive £1,019 per year of service.
Mr Ben Kearney, spokesman for the ATGWU which is representing the staff, told ireland.comtoday, workers were unhappy that travel concessions, which he said were worth a lot of money, would not be retained in the transfer and said they would continue to strike until a settlement had been reached with British Midlands management.
However, he could not give any indication as to when an agreement might be finalised and said the company had not been in touch with them since last week.
A spokesman for the airline has disputed this, however, and said the company had contacted the union by letter yesterday.
He insisted the workers would not lose their British Midlands travel concessions, but said they would be reduced, although "not significantly".
He said the company had the opinion that the union seemed to be "changing their tune all the time" as to the crux of their dispute and said dissatisfaction with travel bonuses this week followed a problem with the transfer pay deal last week.
Two flights have been cancelled this morning - one out of Dublin and one out of London. The company said this evening that tomorrow's flight schedule will be slightly disrupted, but expects it to return to normal on Thursday.