SIPTU ordered to pay costs after airport strike injunction

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The High Court granted an injunction preventing SIPTU members from holding planned four-hour work stoppages at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports on Friday, March 14, 2014. The action arose from a pension dispute involving Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan found there was a serious issue to be tried over the validity of SIPTU’s ballot, including whether it should have included all DAA members and whether workers subject to separate agreements could take part before required procedures were followed. The injunction was granted on the DAA’s application; the court did not need to decide Ryanair’s separate application.

SIPTU confirmed the stoppage would not go ahead.

On March 19, Mr Justice Gilligan ruled that the DAA and Ryanair were entitled to their legal costs of the injunction applications, but stayed both costs orders pending the outcome of the full action. SIPTU had urged the court to defer the question of costs until the full case was decided. The judge said Ryanair was entitled to its costs because it had raised relevant issues that the DAA had not raised.