A row between Ryanair and the Irish Airline Pilots' Association deepened yesterday, with the company announcing it had initiated High Court proceedings against the association.
The airline accused IALPA of conducting an "organised campaign of harassment and intimidation of Ryanair pilots", through a website set up last year.
The Ryanair European Pilots' Association (REPA) was launched in October by IALPA and its British counterpart, BALPA, to give pilots a "united voice" in their dealings with the airline "and in particular its chief executive", Mr Michael O'Leary.
Ryanair claimed yesterday the website, www.repaweb.org, had been a conduit for intimidation of pilots considering flying the airline's new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft to be based in Dublin later this year.
"In addition to threatening and intimidating Ryanair pilots, this website has also published specific threats...which have been the source of a formal complaint to the Garda Síochána," said the airline.
It said it had commenced High Court proceedings against IALPA, which is part of the IMPACT union, and named officials of the association.
The association's president, Capt Evan Cullen, rejected the airline's accusations. "IALPA deprecates any form of intimidation, victimisation or harassment in aviation, which is a safety critical industry." He said IALPA would support an independent investigation of "all claims" of intimidation, but "regrettably Ryanair has refused several opportunities for this to happen".
A number of Ryanair pilots claimed they have been victimised by the airline. In a letter to Mr O'Leary last month, Capt Cullen suggested that an investigation could take place through the Labour Relations Commission, a High Court inspector or the Irish Aviation Authority.
However, Mr O'Leary rejected the suggestions as "disingenuous".
"We live in the 21st century, and there is no place in this democracy for old-school union intimidation and victimisation against workers who do not wish to participate in your attempt to force union recognition upon Ryanair," he wrote to Capt Cullen on February 2nd.
Relations between the airline and IALPA were already strained because of a Labour Court case taken by the union to improve the terms and conditions of Ryanair's pilots.
In addition, a rights commissioner is to hear a complaint of victimisation against the airline made by eight senior Ryanair pilots, who are members of IALPA. The complaint stems from attempts by the airline's senior management to persuade the pilots to accept terms and conditions attached to their training to fly new Boeing aircraft.
