Pilots in Aer Lingus who are members of the Irish Air Lines’ Pilots Association (IALPA), a branch of Fórsa, engaged with Aer Lingus management twice in the last week under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The WRC engagements took place in the context of IALPA’s rejection of the recommendations of the Pilot Pay Tribunal in January.

The latter engagement between IALPA and Aer Lingus ended inconclusively on Tuesday night (20th February), with both sides agreeing to refer the issue to the Labour Court.

In a letter to members issued on Wednesday (21st February) IALPA president Captain Mark Tighe was critical of Aer Lingus’s statements to pilots and the media about the WRC talks, which he described as “breach of good faith.”

He added: “As the issue remains in process, we believe that this is inappropriate, unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour” and criticised Aer Lingus’s “incorrect account of events” at the WRC.

He said the IALPA executive would continue to pursue a pay increase “that will be acceptable to the pilot body, based on a strong mandate from a united pilot body.” 

He said the percentage increases reported by the employer were inaccurate: “In negotiations, IALPA sought an increase to meet the cost of living based on CPI (Consumer Price Index) and inflation, and accounted for the fact that our last pay rise was in 2019.” 

IALPA has said previously that any new pay deal needs to account for the loss of real earnings due to inflation, and consider pilot pay increases throughout the industry.

IALPA is to host a number of members’ information meetings over the coming week. 

The January ballot saw 98.1% of IALPA members voting to reject the proposal of a pay increase of 8.5% (plus a 1.5% ‘unconsolidated’, or once-off and non-pensionable pay measure) over three years, which was a recommendation by the pilot pay tribunal. The pay increase was dependent upon pilots accepting significant structural change to their terms and conditions.

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