LCR17163

The Survival Plan

In response to serious financial difficulties facing the airline in the latter part of last year, the Survival Plan was produced with the assistance of the Labour Relations Commission. The object of the Plan is to maintain the future viability of Aer Lingus by improving its efficiency and competitiveness in a rapidly changing market. It involved major savings in the Company’s cost base including its staff costs.

The savings in staff costs are to be achieved by improved efficiency in working arrangements and in retrenchment of working conditions. The Court accepts that the Survival Plan must be implemented fully and all staff must be encompassed by its terms.

In the case of the members of IMPACT/IALPA, a special arbitration process was agreed on matters relating to the implementation of the Survival Plan. The report of the arbitrator appointed by the LRC was not acceptable to the Union. In the course of this investigation, the Union highlighted a number of aspects of the arbitration report with which they have difficulty. The recommendations which follow are intended to clarify or elaborate those proposals and to modify existing agreements, where necessary, so as to incorporate changes arising from the Survival Plan and the arbitration report as clarified or elaborated by this recommendation.

Days off for Roster Period of 28 Days

It should be clarified that this provision will operate so as to produce 7 roster periods which will include 9 days off and 6 roster periods which will include 8 days off.

Days off after Eastbound Transatlantic Flights

The current arrangements regarding days off should be modified so as to provide that a 2 day turnaround may follow an Eastbound Shannon transit provided the transit is planned at 2 hours or less. The Court notes the Union's concern to maintain the current arrangements regarding the distribution of days off. However, the Court accepts that those arrangements if applied rigidly, will negate any benefit which would accrue from the changes from 3 to 2 day turnaround.

In the circumstances, the distribution of rest days should be adjusted to take account of the new arrangement.

The pattern of rest days should be reviewed by the parties when the PBS system is introduced.

Early Duty Attendance

The Company may roster up to 4 early duties to commence prior to 0.700 in any 7 consecutive days. Not more than 3 such duties may be rostered prior to 0.600 in any 7 consecutive days.

These duties should, however, be covered on a voluntary basis where possible. In that regard, the Court notes that an outline agreement has been reached between the parties on the basis on which such a voluntary arrangement could operate. The Court recommends that this agreement should be implemented subject to the right of the Company to roster staff where voluntary cover is not provided.

Textual Clarification

The following points arising from the Arbitration report should be clarified.

(a) The following definition of Preferential Bidding System (PBS) should be included in the text of the report.

• “PBS is a system which would allow Pilots to bid in advance for work to an agreed level within a set of agreed rules.”
  
  “The rules in PBS should be as contained in the Agreement on Pilots Working Conditions, as modified by this recommendation.”
  

• The second sentence of the text should read as follows:
  • “Where 2 or more consecutive days off are rostered then the minimum duration that can be planned shall be 37 hours for the first day off and 24 hours for each of the subsequent days off. Operational circumstances may permit the first day off to be reduced to 35 hours off followed by 24 hours for each subsequent day off”.
    

• The final sentence should be read to refer to simulator training.

The minimum rest period entitlement of a pilot at base should be 12 hours or preceding duty plus two hours whichever is the greater. This rest period should be planned and normally operated.

It is noted that within the current arrangements, flexibility exists to deal with exigencies where the present minimum rest period cannot be provided. That flexibility should be maintained.

Exceptionally, where due to operational difficulties outside the control of the Company (such as late arrival of aircraft) it is not possible to provide a 12 hour rest period, the Company may seek the cooperation of pilots to work with a rest period of between 10 and 12 hours. However, the requirement to work with a 10 hour rest period should only arise in the most exceptional of circumstances and in any event not more frequently than on 6 occasions in any year for any individual pilot.

The requirement to work with less than a 12 hour rest period should not arise routinely. Rather, it should be seen as flexibility measure to cover exceptional circumstances. If the frequency with which the Company is required to avail of this flexibility is such that it could not reasonably be regarded as exceptional, the arrangement proposed will, in the Court's view, require further examination.

In that connection, the Court recommends that the operation of this measure be re-examined jointly by the parties after it has operated for a period of two years.

Outstations

The minimum rest periods at outstations should be the preceding duty plus 2 hours or 11 hours whichever is the greater, subject to a 10 hour rest period in exceptional circumstances.

Revision of Agreement on Pilots Working Conditions

The current Agreement on Pilots Working Conditions (“The Yellow Book”) should be regarded as having been revised to the extent necessary to give effect to the provision of the Survival Plan and the arbitration report, as modified by this recommendation.

Duty Time Limits – Clause 6.6

This clause should be elaborated so as to provide that the Company may plan and operate rosters up to the legal limits set by IAA/JAA, subject to the provisions of the Agreement on Pilot Working Conditions, as revised in accordance with the preceding paragraph of this recommendation.

Outstanding Industrial Relations Issues

The Union expressed concern to the Court at the number of outstanding issues which are pending resolution through the Company / Union procedural agreement. The Court recommends that the parties should immediately seek to identify those issues of an individual nature which are now capable of resolution through third party adjudication.

The parties should then nominate an agreed third party to whom these issues should be referred for investigation and final adjudication. This process should be completed within a period of six months from date of acceptance of this recommendation.

Interpretation of Agreements

The Court notes the concern expressed by the Union regarding the absence of any agreed mechanism for the resolution of disputes on the interpretation of agreements.

The Court would refer the parties to Section 7 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969, which provides as follows:

• 7- The Court may, at any time, on the application of the parties to an agreement between an employer or a trade union of employers and a worker or a trade union of workers relating to the pay or conditions of employment of any person to whom the agreement relates give its decision as to the interpretation of the agreement or its application to a particular person.
  

Conclusion

Except where otherwise stated, all of the recommendations set out above are intended to have immediate effect.

These recommendations are intended as a comprehensive response to all of the issues raised by the parties in the course of the investigation. They are intended to provide the basis on which the members of IMPACT/IALPA will become fully committed to and encompassed by the Survival Plan as it relates to Pilots.

Further, the Court is conscious of the background against which this Recommendation will come to be considered by the parties. It should be understood as representing the final stage in the process of seeking agreement which will allow for the resumption of normal working and services and the continuance of the airline as a viable business.