Union representatives of Aer Lingus cabin crew will tomorrow ask the Labour Court to clarify elements of its recommendation concerning their dispute with the company.
The union, IMPACT, decided on Saturday to call off a one-day strike planned for today after the recommendation was issued on Friday night. As a result, Aer Lingus said it would provide a full schedule of services today, including 17 flights which had been earmarked for cancellation.
The dispute between the sides remains unresolved, however, and the 1,000 cabin crew are to continue a work-to-rule begun last month.
Staff are refusing to work on flights which have fewer than the agreed number of cabin crew, forcing the airline to hire in aircraft and crew on occasions.
Aer Lingus "condemned" the union for declining to call off all industrial action in the wake of the court's recommendation.
"IMPACT's decision to continue to subject Aer Lingus and its customers to the threat of disruption is completely inexplicable," it said in a statement.
The union, which staged a one-day stoppage last Friday, said it was not possible to reach a definitive view of the court's recommendation as there were issues that required clarification from the court or the company.
The dispute is over the amount of work change cabin crew should accept in return for a delayed 4 per cent pay increase, due under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
A further 3 per cent rise under the existing partnership deal, Sustaining Progress, has also been blocked because of the row.
The issue at the centre of the dispute is Aer Lingus's demand that staff rosters accommodate new, 25-minute aircraft "turnaround times". The court recommended that fixed turnaround times be implemented, but that a monitoring exercise be put in place to review the impact of the move after three months.
Issues such as how the monitoring exercise would work, who would carry it out and to whom they would report are likely to be among the matters which the union will want clarified.
The recommendation was examined for more than two hours by IMPACT's cabin crew committee on Saturday before it decided to call off today's action.
It is understood the initial reaction of committee members to the recommendation was one of disappointment, but this gave way to hope that it might contain enough for a resolution.
That will depend, however, on the clarifications the union is seeking. If the outcome is satisfactory, the next step would be to put the recommendation to a ballot of members.
Aer Lingus is to consider the recommendation at its board meeting on Thursday.
