Aer Lingus pilots are to carry out an indefinite work to rule starting from Wednesday June 26th.
The notice was served by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) to Aer Lingus on Tuesday.
The dispute is a row over pay with pilots looking for a pay rise of 24%.
The work to rule means Aer Lingus pilots will not work overtime, not accept amendments to published rosters, not log into the Aer Lingus portal or answer phone calls outside of work hours.
An Aer Lingus aircraft at Dublin Airport, 4-8-21. Image: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ieIALPA President Captain Mark Tighe said Aer Lingus management hasn't given them a meaningful offer.
"We are now at a point where this dispute has escalated to indefinite industrial action by pilots," he said.
"We are in this position because management have failed to provide us with a meaningful offer on pay that accounts for inflation and the sacrifices made by pilots to save Aer Lingus during the pandemic.
"Management keep insisting that pilots must sell their working conditions in exchange for any increase in pay. We are absolutely not prepared to do that, especially when Aer Lingus is making enormous profits.
"Our pay claim is for 24%, which equates to inflation since our last pay rise in 2019. Aer Lingus have increased their profits by 400% to €255 million last year.
"Our pay claim is entirely affordable, and Aer Lingus management need to quickly change position if they want to avoid this dispute escalating," he added.
Aer Lingus response
In a statement Aer Lingus said the work to rule is "entirely unnecessary".
"Aer Lingus will assess the impact of the full detail of the industrial action served by IALPA, including the strict ‘work to rule’ that they have outlined," the carrier said.
"It will inevitably result in significant disruption to our customers and to other employees.
"Aer Lingus will do everything possible to minimise the disruption to customers, but unfortunately a significant level of disruption is inevitable."
Aer Lingus said it wrote to IALPA in advance of being served with the notice, informing them that industrial action at this time of year would cause "very significant disruption and have a devastating impact on customers and their families going into the summer holiday season".
It added that IALPA declined Aer Lingus’ request to give advance notice "of at least 15 days".
'Outrageous'
Aer Lingus has previously branded the pay claim as 'outrageous'.
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty told Newstalk Breakfast the plan would see 200 senior pilots get a "€50,000 pay increase", bringing their package to just under €350,000.
"That €50,000 increase is more than the total annual pay of 3,500 of our 5,500 employees," Mr Moriarty said.
"We have many pilots in Aer Lingus and we really value them in the business - they are fairly paid but what they're looking for through IALPA is outrageous."
The work to rule will be in place from a minute past midnight on Wednesday June 26th.
