RYANAIR pilots have voted by 77 to one for industrial action, following rejection of a new company agreement which contained a five-year industrial peace clause.
Members of the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association (IALPA) branch of IMPACT will decide on the form of action. They are expected to co-operate with the British Air Line Pilots' Association (BALPA), which has invoked the 1999 Employment Relations Act to gain union recognition from Ryanair.
The company has two weeks to respond, after which the British Central Arbitration Council can ballot the pilots. If over 50 per cent want union representation, the company must agree.
IMPACT claims to represent 95 per cent of the 88 Irish-based Ryanair pilots and about half of its 120 British-based pilots who are in a union. The rest of the unionised staff are in BALPA.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus caterers have agreed to defer Friday's strike at the request of the Labour Court, which is expected to make a recommendation on their pay claim by then.
The dispute started in September over proposed changes in pilots' rosters, which many pilots believed were excessive. IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Mr Michael Landers, said yesterday: "Ryanair is clearly a profitable company and shouldn't have their pilots working up to 60 hours a week to generate profits."
Yesterday Ryanair announced a 45 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £62 million for the six months to September 30th.
Ryanair's chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, said just under half of the pilots had been willing to accept the new pay and shares package on offer. He said it was "quite extraordinary that Ryan air's pilots would fail to accept a five-year pay package which included all captains rising to £100,000 per annum". Another benefit was more than £100,000 of share options each.