IMPACT has deferred its strike ballot at Ryanair. According to the union this follows agreement between its pilots' committee and Ryanair on pilots' hours.
"The dispute arose when Ryanair announced plans to increase the pilots' maximum weekly hours from 50 to 55, in breach of a 1994 agreement," the IMPACT assistant general secretary, Mr Michael Landers, said. "Under the new interim agreement pilots' hours will be capped at 100 hours per fortnight, pending proposals for a new rostering agreement to be presented to the pilots in mid-October."
In a statement last night Ryanair said: "The information from IMPACT, the Aer Lingus trade union, which was reported in its entirety in last Saturday's Irish Times', is incorrect.
"The information in today's press release from IMPACT is equally inaccurate. Ryanair's duty hours were not increased last week, and none of the existing limits have been or need to be changed this week either.
"As always these matters were discussed and clarified directly between Ryanair and our pilots and this will continue to be the case. Rumours of disruption within Ryanair which emanate from an Aer Lingus trade union should be seen for what they are."
Mr Landers said Ryanair's statement was "long on rhetoric and short on facts". He rejected the claim that IMPACT was an Aer Lingus union. Fewer than 7.5 per cent of its 40,000 members worked for Aer Lingus, he said.