AIR TRAFFIC controllers and management at the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) will today attend the Labour Court for preliminary and exploratory talks aimed at resolving the dispute which caused disruption to 20,000 passengers on Wednesday.
The union Impact, which represents the air traffic controllers, said yesterday that, following an invitation by the Labour Court to attend talks, it had deferred any consideration of further industrial action.
However, a number of airlines – CityJet, Aer Arann and Ryanair – complained yesterday at how the air traffic control system was operating. Some said there was still an unofficial work-to-rule under way by air traffic controllers at Dublin airport which was aimed at disrupting normal commercial operating schedules.
Ryanair said air traffic controllers had disrupted flights by various means, including:
r Delaying aircraft push-backs;
r Failing to give aircraft direct routings, sending them instead into hold patterns;
r Failing to provide cover for ill colleagues.
An Impact spokesman said last night there was no work-to-rule under way at Dublin airport.
The invitation by the Labour Court to attend talks today followed behind-the-scenes intervention by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) and the employers’ group Ibec.
The IAA said the 14 air traffic controllers who had been taken off the payroll for refusing to co-operate with new technology – the move which prompted the industrial action on Wednesday – remained suspended.
Impact said the Labour Court talks provided an opportunity to address all of the matters in dispute, including the issue of suspended staff.
The IAA said it welcomed the court’s invitation to meet with both parties for talks, and it hoped it would lead to a return to normality.
Speaking following a meeting of the national executive of the air traffic controllers’ branch of Impact in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, the assistant general secretary of the union, Michael Landers, said he was hopeful the IAA would now “behave responsibly” and reinstate the suspended air traffic controllers.
“We have decided that in light of the Labour Court intervention we will defer any further work stoppages.”
He denied any of his members had been instructed to operate on a work-to-rule basis.
“We have issued no instructions regarding a work-to-rule. There is no work-to-rule under way apart from the projects which are at the core of this dispute and also clearly, obviously, people are not going to be coming in on overtime to cover their 14 colleagues who are suspended. But apart from that there is no further industrial action on the way.”
President of the Irish Air Traffic Control Association and one of the 14 suspended controllers Tristan Spillane apologised to the travelling public affected by the action. He described some of the media reports on the matter as “hurtful” and insisted money was not the cause of the dispute but rather it was about suspended members.
Earlier yesterday, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey accused air traffic controllers of causing “reputational damage” to Ireland.
He said the dispute had become a serious national issue, and the air traffic controllers needed to realise there was more at stake than their issue with the IAA.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said the Minister should remove the right to strike from air traffic controllers. If Mr Dempsey was not prepared to provide leadership “then he should provide his resignation”.
