The High Court has rejected a claim that there is a pay parity link between 1,500 former TEAM Aer Lingus employees who remained with that company after it was sold to FLS and 100 colleagues who exercised their right to return to the national airline.
Mr Justice Kearns said yesterday that the absence of any express documentation regarding pay parity tilted the balance of evidence towards the airline.
Also, the fact that no attempt had been made by unions to invoke "any contractual parity of pay term" during the 1990s, when TEAM Aer Lingus was a wholly owned subsidiary of the airline, supported the Aer Lingus position.
Mr Justice Kearns cited management correspondence, unchallenged from the union side, stressing the separate nature of the two enterprises. A "basic theme" of the restructuring of the companies was "that the subsidiary was to operate as an independent commercial entity with its own separate and distinct negotiation procedures in relation to pay".
"I will accordingly declare that the contract in this case did not include any term, either express or implied, whereby TEAM workers would enjoy parity of pay with comparable workers in Aer Lingus."
Many of the aircraft maintenance workers who opted to exercise their "letters of comfort" from the Government to return to Aer Lingus, when it sold TEAM to FLS, are now working as general operatives. They are also seeking redeployment to their old jobs.
Mr Justice Kearns said he would look at this aspect of the case again, but urged the company and the men to try to resolve their differences through industrial relations procedures if they could.
Afterwards the company welcomed the finding and said it vindicated the position of Aer Lingus that no pay parity existed between the companies.
One of the workers affected, Mr Jim Byrne of AMICUS-AEEU, said they would be reviewing their options with their legal advisers.
Besides losing out on pay parity and having to work as general operatives, although paid on the craft or technical pay scale, the workers were not entitled to the average payments of €36,000 each which went to colleagues who stayed with TEAM when it was privatised. This was to buy out the "letters of comfort" guaranteeing them a job with Aer Lingus if FLS closed.
They also say they are "in limbo" regarding the current Aer Lingus restructuring deal because aspects of their High Court case are still pending. However Aer Lingus says it is open to any of the men to apply for redundancy.