DIRECTLY-EMPLOYED RYANAIR pilots based in Ireland are to take strike action for 48 hours from midnight on Thursday 22 August. 

Their trade union Fórsa served strike notice on the company this evening, and said Ryanair pilots would notify the company of further strike days in due course.

The move comes after 94% of directly-employed Ryanair pilots, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), voted to back industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and related issues.

IALPA is seeking pay levels it believes are common and competitive in the commercial airline sector

Yesterday, the union accepted an invitation from mediator Kieran Mulvey to attend talks this afternoon.

It said that only a substantive counter-proposal from Ryanair management, which properly addressed all areas of the IALPA claim, was required to convince pilots’ representatives not to take strike action next week.

Fórsa said no such counter-proposal was made at the mediation meeting today.

Denying management claims that the company had not received specific proposals, Fórsa said Ryanair had received detailed proposals almost four months ago.

Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk said Ryanair pilots told her they’d been forced into industrial action by the company’s failure to offer any significant response to their proposals over a four-month period.

She said she regretted any disruption that might flow from management’s unwillingness or inability to negotiate a fair and transparent pay package, even at this late hour.

Ryanair has this evening called on its pilots and Fórsa to return to independent mediation with “reasonable proposals which reflect the falling airfares and profits Ryanair has recently reported”. 

Speaking this evening, Ryanair’s Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said:

We have done everything in our power to avoid disruption to our flights and our customers’ holidays.

However, no company can concede to grossly unreasonable demands from its highest paid workers for a further pay increase of over 100% (when they already agreed and received a 20% pay increase earlier this year) at a time when the airline industry is in crisis.

 ”We remain willing to engage in mediation with our pilots and Fórsa but call on them to avoid disrupting our customers’ travel plans in pursuit of what are clearly unrealistic and unimplementable pay proposals.”

Some 180 directly-employed Ryanair pilots based in Ireland, who are members of IALPA, were eligible to vote in the strike ballot. Ryanair pilots who are employed by agencies, or have ‘self-employed’ status, cannot be balloted under Irish employment law.

TheJournal.ie has contacted Ryanair for an updated statement.