Ryanair was accused yesterday of victimising its Dublin-based pilots after it announced that all other staff had been awarded a 3 per cent pay increase.
The airline said the increase, backdated to April 1st, had been granted following "direct negotiations" with its staff last month.
However, its Dublin-based pilots had chosen not to negotiate directly with the company and "as a result they have not at this time enjoyed a pay rise", it said.
The decision to withhold the increase from one section of its staff is the latest episode in an increasingly bitter row between the airline and its 70-odd Dublin-based pilots.
The vast majority of the pilots are members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa), which is part of the trade union, Impact.
The union has taken a case in relation to the pilots' contracts to the Labour Court, but Ryanair has challenged these proceedings in the High Court.
A number of cases have also been taken by Impact to a rights commissioner, alleging victimisation of the Dublin-based pilots on a number of grounds, including the refusal to give them a pay rise.
In a separate case due to be decided by the High Court today, a Ryanair pilot is seeking to have the company's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, and two other executives jailed for alleged contempt of court.
The pilot, John Goss, claims Mr O'Leary and the two other executives, David O'Brien and Ray Conway, breached a court order by failing to reinstate him to flying duties. Ryanair denies breaching a court order.
It said it had told Mr Goss it was operationally inappropriate that he should fly while court proceedings were pending and it was suspending him on full pay.
Mr Goss had in February secured an injunction restraining Ryanair from conducting disciplinary proceedings against him, pending a full court challenge.
He claims the airline's suspension of him last month was an attempt to bully and intimidate him and other pilots who wished to pursue issues with the company through Ialpa.
Reacting to yesterday's announcement of a pay increase for all Ryanair staff bar the Dublin pilots, Impact assistant general secretary Michael Landers accused the airline of "gross victimisation".
He claimed the rights commissioner, and not Mr O'Leary, would ultimately decide whether the pilots would get a pay rise.
Mr Landers also disputed Ryanair's claim to have negotiated the increase directly with staff, claiming Mr O'Leary simply told staff what the increase would be. "That's what negotiations Ryanair-style amount to."
However, Ryanair's director of personnel, Eddie Wilson, said the airline had negotiated with staff representatives throughout the company.
Some of the staff negotiators had been formally elected by their colleagues in secret ballots, while in other cases representatives had been chosen informally.
In no case, however, had Ryanair selected the people who represented staff.
The negotiations had been genuine and involved three to four meetings with separate groups, he said.
