The Ryanair employees voted in favour of industrial action today by a ballot carried out by the Irish Air Line Pilots Association (IALPA).
The move hails from a dispute between the budget airline and its pilot staff who have rejected the company's collective bargaining structures.
IMPACT confirmed to
RTÉ that 84 ballot papers were issued to directly employed pilots and 83 were returned. The remaining ballot paper was spoilt.
Of the remaining 82, 79 voted in favour of industrial action, with three against.
It's understood that the pilots have demanded improvements on both pay and conditions from the airline as well the right to have union representation for collective bargaining across all of Europe.
According to reports, pilots at a number of bases, including Dublin, London Stansted and Madrid, have since rejected proposals from management to do with pay and conditions.
Ryanair has since ordered its Dublin-based pilots to call together for an emergency meeting at its headquarters this evening.
Portuguese pilots have also voted in favour of strike action this week, without pinpointing notice of any specific industrial action. Ryanair pilots based in Italy, on the other hand, have already served notice of a four-hour stoppage this Friday.
Ryanair has since released a statement regarding the issue: “Less than 28% of Ryanair’s Dublin (over 300) pilots have voted in favour of unspecified industrial action.
“Ryanair has received no notification of any industrial action by its Dublin pilots so we suspect this is more PR activity by Aer Lingus pilots group IALPA, to distract from their failure in negotiating a paltry 3% pay increase for Aer Lingus pilots.
"Now that Ryanair’s Cork, Shannon and Belfast bases have agreed 20% pay increases we expect the Dublin pilots to follow this trend. However, if Ryanair’s Dublin pilots are misled by some Aer Lingus pilots into industrial action then they will lose their favourable rosters (5on/4off, a double bank holiday every week) and remuneration benefits that are specifically linked by agreement to dealing directly with Ryanair.
"This might be the first time in Irish history that a few Aer Lingus pilots persuade Ryanair pilots earning between €150,000 to €180,000 p.a. to take up industrial action instead of a 20% pay increase when Aer Lingus pilots are only getting 3%.
"If any such industrial action occurs Ryanair will still not engage with, or recognise, Aer Lingus pilots or their IALPA union."
