Ryanair and unions start talks in bid to end dispute

AIRLINE passengers will be hoping talks between unions and Ryanair resolve the row that has led to five strikes so far.

Both sides met yesterday for the first of three days of talks. Mediator Kieran Mulvey, the former Workplace Relations Commission chairman, asked those involved not discuss matters with the media while discussions continue.

The talks are taking place in Dublin Airport and come after both sides appeared to be becoming even more entrenched.

Matters weren’t helped by the budget airline’s decision last month to issue 90day protective notice to more than 100 Dublin-based pilots and 200 cabin crew.

Such a notice indicates to employees that a company expects staff to be made redundant in the future unless circumstances change.

The move was seen as a direct strike against the pilots and a hardening of resolve against the unions by the airline.

On the eve of talks, Ryanair was still repeating its claims from last month that Aer Lingus pilots are ‘disrupting’ industrial relations between it and the Ialpa-Fórsa union. Ialpa-Fórsa has repeatedly denied the claims.

The dispute resulted in a fifth day of strike action last Friday. About 100 of Ryanair’s 350 Irish-based pilots took part, along with colleagues in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. The airline said 396 flights were cancelled, disrupting thousands of passengers.

A Ryanair spokesman said mediation was required after the five strikes failed to achieve ‘anything other than to regrettably disrupt some customers’. He said 95% of the airline’s flights and the majority of its pilots had operated on those days.

‘Mediation should ensure Fórsa take control of their side of the process, take these negotiations more seriously and remove unwanted interference,’ the spokesman said. ‘Talks, not strikes, will move this forward and allow Ryanair to make the same progress we are making with other unions elsewhere in Europe.’

Fórsa has not served notice of further strike action while the process of mediation is under way. Union representative Bernard Harbor told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme that there was a lot of ground to be made up and that a lot of time had been wasted.

The unrest is one of the biggest challenges to face Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, who was once quoted as saying he would rather cut off his own hand than recognise unions.