Ryanair is traditionally a non-union company but has an employee representative committee (ERC) to represent its employees, the High Court was told yesterday.

Ryanair has brought proceedings aimed at quashing a finding by the Labour Court that there is a trade dispute between the company and Impact, the trade union which represents the Irish Airline Pilots' Association.

Under new legislation introduced last year, the Labour Court has the authority to investigate the complaints of workers where the company involved does not recognise trade unions and where there are inadequate internal collective bargaining procedures.

Last January, the Labour Court found that it had jurisdiction to hear complaints by Ryanair pilots. Ryanair has now challenged that decision and is seeking to prevent the Labour Court from proceeding with its formal investigation.

The Labour Court found that a trade dispute exists under the Industrial Relations Act 2001 and that it was not the practice of Ryanair to engage in collective bargaining and that there was/is no operative internal dispute resolution procedures in place.

Yesterday, Mr Martin Hayden SC, for Ryanair, said that his clients had traditionally operated non-union recognition in relation to its employees and, in its place, had an ERC which was used to resolve matters.

The company had been negotiating in this way over the years and consistently rejected negotiating with the unions and opted for the ERC.

On the second day of the hearing before Mr Justice Hanna, the judge was told that the issue at the centre of the debate began last summer when the low-cost airline began the conversion of its Dublin fleet. This process involved training for the pilots concerned.

On November 11th, the company said that it would not negotiate with Impact. However, it said it would negotiate directly with the pilots, who subsequently referred the matter to the Labour Court.

Mr Hayden said Ryanair took the view that the Labour Court did not have jurisdiction under the relevant Act and the company held that there were existing internal procedures within Ryanair which had not been exhausted.

Counsel also argued that it was inconceivable that no witnesses had been put forward at the Labour Court hearing, which meant that he had no opportunity to test their evidence of their complaints concerning the airline's decision to upgrade its fleet of aircraft.

Because of the failure to produce witnesses, he was unable to cross examine them and, as a result of this, fair procedures were not followed at the Labour Court hearing.

In an affidavit, Mr Eddie Wilson, director of personnel and inflight with Ryanair, said that the airline accepted the right of all employees to join or not to join trade unions but it did not accept that it should be compelled to negotiate with any trade union.

It had been the policy and practice of Ryanair for many years to deal directly with its employees without the "intermeddling" of trade unions and this system had served Ryanair employees "very well" he said.

The hearing continues today.