The Labour Court has recommended that a new interim overtime system should be put in place for air traffic controllers for the next 18 months until additional newly recruited staff become fully operational.
The recommendation issued by the court last night is aimed at ending a dispute between air traffic controllers, represented by the trade union Impact, and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which had threatened to ground all flights into and out of the country later this week.
Impact said last night that its initial assessment was that there were "some positive elements" in the recommendation.
The IAA said the recommendation was complex and that it was being considered.
Under the proposals, air traffic controllers would receive an allowance of €4,000 a year for making themselves available to do overtime on a voluntary basis.
Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy recommended that participating air traffic controllers should make themselves available to be called in on overtime on 12 days per year but that they would not actually be called into work on more than eight occasions.
He proposed that an overtime rate of double time should apply and that staff should be paid for a minimum of five hours at overtime rates if they were called in to work.
However, the Labour Court said it was not its function or within its competence to adjudicate on the conflicting claims set out by Impact and the IAA on whether there was currently a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Impact has contended the current dispute centred on a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, while management has argued strongly that no such shortage existed and that the row was about increased overtime payments..
The court said it was not its role to recommend on what the appropriate level of staffing in the air traffic control service should be.
It acknowledged the IAA had put in place a recruitment programme, but that due to normal training requirements these staff would not be fully operational for some 18 months.
The Labour Court recommended that "constructive discussions" should take place between management and the union on the future ongoing manpower requirements of the IAA and on how these needs might be most efficiently met.
The court found that although the new system should be voluntary, "those who opt to participate will then be contractually obliged to operate the scheme".
It said that the period on call for overtime should be limited to 14 hours' duration and that the proposed €4,000 allowance should not be pensionable but should be taken into account for the purposes of calculating holiday pay.
The court said the proposed new arrangement should be reviewed after 18 months.
It also said the allowance should increase in line with rises in basis pay.
In its recommendation, the court also said a voluntary ad hoc overtime scheme to cover short-term extensions of duty of up to three hours should be implemented.
It proposed that under this scheme staff should be paid an overtime rate of €95 for one hour, €180 for two hours and €255 for three hours.
Earlier Impact said it had agreed to a request by the Labour Court that a planned 24-hour strike on Thursday, which would have grounded flights throughout the country, should be deferred.
The introduction of an official overtime ban from today was also suspended by the union.
