THE strike by 81 craft workers at the Airmotive plant, which threatened the closure of the company's Rathcoole plant in Co Dublin and the loss of 431 jobs, has been settled. They agreed on a return to work at a meeting last night and normal working is expected to resume from tomorrow.
The return is on the basis of a new Labour Court recommendation, which includes binding arbitration on the pay claim that sparked off the dispute.
The court proposes that craft workers receive Pounds 500 each on their return to work. An assessor will then go to the plant and carry out an evaluation of the craft workers claim that the workload and qualifications required to comply with recent aviation regulations entitle them to a two per cent pay rise.
The assessor will report back to the Labour Court within eight weeks, and it will issue a final recommendation, which will be binding. The craft workers have rejected two previous Labour Court recommendations.
The Pounds 500 paid out to the craft workers will be taken into account in calculating any pay rise the court may consider due to the strikers.
So far only 27 people have been laid off as a result of the six week strike. These are all expected to be back at work by the end of the week.
The company, which has lost Pounds 9 million worth of business since the beginning of the dispute, had threatened to lay off the entire workforce from the end of the week if the craft workers rejected yesterday's terms.
Both sides welcomed the end of the dispute. The general secretary of the AEEU, Mr Eamon Devoy, said he was pleased the dispute had been resolved "and we look forward to a final and satisfactory outcome through the Labour Court".
A spokesman for the company said the end of the strike would avert any further lay offs and Airmotive would be seeking to win back lost business as quickly as possible.