Pilots for Emerald Airlines, the carrier which holds the regional franchise for Aer Lingus, have served notice of industrial action to the airline.
The pilots, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), a branch of the Fórsa trade union, say they are taking the industrial action in response to an ongoing trade dispute.
IALPA members voted 82% in favour of the action, in a dispute over what they say is the airline’s “failure to engage with the association on forming a collective labour agreement for pilots employed at Emerald”.
A spokesperson said that the pilots plan to engage in action from June 23, “commencing with a rolling and strict work to rule, which includes not working off days, no overtime and not working other out-of-hours duties”.
“The union has advised Emerald Airlines that it reserves the right to escalate the industrial action and will provide it with the required notice of same should this occur,” the spokesperson said.
IALPA officer Daniel Langan said the pilots were surprised at Emerald’s refusal to engage with the union.
“Other airlines that previously refused to engage with unions are now happy to negotiate with them to achieve the certainty and stability of a collective labour agreement,” he said.
“Emerald’s position suggests it’s currently out of touch on how best to sustainably establish terms and conditions for its employees in a highly competitive labour market.”
Mr Langan said the refusal to engage “is why this action is now necessary”.
Emerald Airlines operates regional flights, including the public service obligation Dublin to Donegal service on behalf of Aer Lingus. Emerald also operates UK provincial routes including Bristol, Birmingham and Edinburgh, trading as Aer Lingus Regional.
Fórsa official Ian McDonnell said pilots at the airline have “repeatedly shown great flexibility to keep aircraft flying by working their days off to ensure flights were not cancelled”.
“This flexibility is not recognised by the management team and pilots are now withdrawing their flexibility of working on their days off to accommodate the airlines staffing issues as an official work to rule,” he said.
Mr McDonnell said the union “remains available for meaningful and solution-focused engagement”.
“Fórsa and IALPA representatives are willing to commence talks with Emerald management. Unfortunately, Emerald management have ignored repeated requests to meet with an aim to commence discussion on negotiating a collection agreement for pilots in the airline and we have been left with no other option than to escalate this dispute,” he said.
A spokesperson for Emerald Airlines told the : “Since day one, we have been actively engaging in direct discussions with our Flight Crew and just this week we have had an overwhelming majority of 70% accepting our new Pay and Conditions package. We maintain an active and healthy dialogue directly with all of our employees including Pilot employee representatives.”
The spokesperson also said the airline was confident that “this unnecessary action from IALPA will not impact Emerald Airlines’ operations nor cause any disruption to our passengers.”
“IALPA’s threat of labour disruption is creating unwarranted stress and uncertainty for our passengers and our people. We are focused on a reasonable and timely resolution through our direct employee forum.”