Q&A: Labour Court to intervene in Aer Lingus pay dispute. What happens next?  

So why now?

It’s worth pointing out that we have been here before. Prior to the taking of industrial action, the Labour Court had already held a hearing on the pay dispute which concluded in April.

The Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) rejected the interim recommendation from the Labour Court in May, which was well below the almost 24% increase pilots said they were seeking in line with inflation. The Labour Court had recommended an interim pay deal of 9.25% while negotiations continued.

Since then as we know, it escalated to industrial action which includes an indefinite work-to-rule and also saw last Saturday’s eight-hour strike action.

With political pressure ramping up on both sides, the Government has made clear that the Labour Court is still available and remains an effective independent mechanism to try to solve this industrial dispute.

Given tens of thousands are having their travel plans plunged into chaos, it’s little surprise to see the Labour Court intervening like this to hold a hearing. It has exercised its right to intervene under legislation that allows it to do so if there are “exceptional circumstances” at play.

What’s different about this hearing?

There were two attempts at resolving the Aer Lingus-Ialpa dispute last week that yielded no progress — both at the Labour Court and in a face-to-face meeting.

Further discussions took place at the Labour Court on Monday in a bid to break the impasse, lasting over eight hours. It was at that point the Labour Court said it would formally intervene in the dispute.

While recent weeks have seen both sides discuss the issue, this will be a formal process where both sides will have given written submissions explaining their case to the Labour Court in advance.

The Labour Court will then hear from both sides in Wednesday’s hearing, before going off to make its recommendation.

How long will a ruling take?

The Labour Court says that its written recommendations are provided “as soon as is practical” after the close of the hearing, “usually within three weeks in industrial relations disputes”.

Given the urgent, pressing need for a resolution to this dispute, it is expected that the Labour Court’s recommendation will be finalised within days of Wednesday’s hearing if not sooner.

Is the decision of the court binding?

In a word: no. Aer Lingus and Ialpa could disregard the Labour Court’s decision on this.

Here’s what the court has to say on how it resolves industrial disputes: “In industrial relations disputes it operates as a tribunal which hears both sides to a dispute and issues a written recommendation setting out its opinion on the merits of the dispute setting out how the particular dispute should be resolved.

“The parties to the dispute are expected to give serious consideration to the Court’s recommendation.” Given the pressure on both sides though, it will be clear that such “serious consideration” will need to be given and given quickly on whatever the Labour Court recommends.

And what about the industrial action?

Heading into Wednesday’s hearing, the work-to-rule action is still in effect. So far, Aer Lingus has cancelled flights through to Sunday due to this action. It may need to cancel more if no breakthrough is reached in the coming days.

So far, however, no further strike action has been announced by Ialpa pending these latest rounds of talks. If they were to strike again, they would need to provide seven days’ notice so it’s unlikely we will see this happen in the next week.