Directly-employed pilots in Ryanair, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), a branch of the Fórsa trade union, have served notice of industrial action on the airline.

Pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action (99%) in a dispute over management’s approach to transferring pilots between its European and African bases.

The pilots will engage in strike action next week for a period of 24 hours, commencing at 01:00 on Thursday, 12th July. The union has advised Ryanair that it will notify the airline of additional strike days in due course.

The union is seeking an agreement that would govern base transfer arrangements and related matters.

In earlier correspondence to Ryanair management, the union said its request for talks on the issue had been met with a threat to move Dublin-based aircraft and pilots to other airports and cut promotion opportunities.

The union had previously set out minimum requirements for an agreement, which it says are necessary to create a transparent system that was “supportive of pilot retention and recruitment.”

The union said: “Our member pilots directly employed by Ryanair complain that there is no transparent system for the determination of important matters” including “voluntary/involuntary base transfer/allocation, command upgrade, allocation of annual leave and promotion. When a pilot receives notice of a mandatory base change, or is denied a request for a change of base, such management decisions can have a devastating effect on family life.”

The union is seeking a ‘seniority agreement,' to “provide our member pilots directly employed by Ryanair with a fair and transparent mechanism to understand how and why they are in the base they are in, the order in which their turn may come up for a transfer, how and why they received a particular annual leave allocation, or any other decisions that should take due account of their length of service and seniority in the company.”

The union said it remained available and willing to engage on the issues identified in the notice of strike action.

See also: ‘No evidence whatsoever’ that Ryanair wants to engage in meaningful negotiations (Fórsa website)