SIPTU claimed that around 15 of Ryanair's scheduled flights from Dublin airport did not take off yesterday because of the strike by baggage handlers. However, the company continues to maintain its services are operating "as normal". It declined to answer queries about whether it had a compensation scheme in place for passengers who suffer delays or cancellations as a result of the dispute.
Under a Council of Transport Ministers regulation (295 of 1991), air travellers can claim between 150 and 300 ecus (between £119 and £238), if scheduled flights are disrupted. The company said no flights "have been, or will be cancelled as a result of the action involving a small minority of our people".
Meanwhile, a senior SIPTU official, Mr Brendan Hayes, has called on the company to explain reported remarks by the chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, to the striking baggage-handlers, in which he referred in strong language to the union's new civil aviation branch secretary, Ms Carmel Hogan. One of the milder terms he is reported to have used was that she was a "bird".
Mr Hayes, who represents all of SIPTU's public sector members in the Dublin region, said the reported remarks were highly offensive.
"It is almost a week now since The Irish Times carried a report indicating that a senior executive of Ryanair referred to the SIPTU branch secretary as a `bird'," he said. "We have waited for the company or the executive mentioned to respond to this report. "To date they have not done so", he said. "We find this situation unacceptable.
"A gender-based insult of that nature cannot remain on the record unaddressed. The SIPTU branch secretary in particular, and women in general, deserve clarification from the company as to whether such comments represent a statement of their policy towards women."
Mr Hayes also said the Ryanair dispute had proved the case for legally-enforceable trade union rights "beyond question". Voluntary codes "as proposed by IBEC are not worth the paper they are written on".
Ryanair declined to say last night if it would be making a response to Mr Hayes.