This week's courtroom clash between Ryanair and the Irish Air Line Pilots' Association (Ialpa) may have been just the first on the pair's row over pay.
In the action taken by the airline, the High Court ordered members of Ialpa– a branch of trade union Fórsa – in Ryanair not to go ahead with a strike planned for Thursday and Friday this week, August 22nd and 23rd.
Mr Justice Denis McDonald gave the order pending a full hearing of the issue, which could come before the court again after the new legal term gets under way next month.
Ialpa earlier this month completed a ballot of Ryanair members for industrial action in a dispute over a pay claim that it lodged last March. The airline says this could result in some highly paid pilots doubling their salary. The union argues that the company has failed to respond meaningfully to its demands.
On the face of it, there are two key questions that the court wants to tease out. One concerns the ballot that Ialpa conducted of members. The Industrial Relations Act, 1990 requires unions to have members vote in secret on strikes or other forms of action. Failing to do this, or to do it in accordance with proper procedures, leaves a union at risk of being sued by an employer.
Actually voted
Ialpa has 180 members in Ryanair out of a total of 420 or so pilots flying for the airline in the Republic. Ryanair questioned why only 109 Ialpa members, 61 per cent of the total, actually voted in the ballot (101 of them opted for industrial action).
Justice McDonald did not rule on this one way or the other, but instead said that the union had to provide evidence that it followed its own rules and that all those entitled to vote had the opportunity to do so. Fórsa-Ialpa has always maintained it conducted the ballot properly.
Fórsa-Ialpa said that it would read Justice McDonald's ruling before deciding its next step
The second issue is whether, before striking, the union was bound to exhaust the mediation in which both sides were engaged under the chairmanship of Kieran Mulvey, former director-general of the Workplace Relations Commission.
The Ryanair-Ialpa agreement underpinning this process requires both sides to refer issues in dispute to mediation without recourse to industrial action. At a meeting last week aimed at averting a strike, Fórsa-Ialpa representatives declared that the process had failed before walking out.
Not legally binding
Observers are not sure how this question could play out if it goes to a full hearing. The Irish industrial relations system is “voluntarist”, which means both workers and employers agree to participate, but agreements are not legally binding, so courts cannot enforce them.
Following this week’s hearing, Fórsa-Ialpa said that it would read Justice McDonald’s ruling before deciding its next step. One option could be to return to the talks table before any further court dates.
Ryanair has already said that it wants to go back to mediation, and it is understood that Mr Mulvey is still available for this.