Labour Court to investigate Ryanair pilots’ employment dispute

The Labour Court will investigate a dispute between Ryanair and the Irish Municipal, Public And Civil Trade Union/Irish Airlines Pilots Association over pilots’ written employment particulars, movement between aircraft types and redundancy principles. The Court found a trade dispute concerning pilots’ terms and conditions. The Court heard preliminary issues on 14 December 2004 and signed its decision on 25 January 2005. It found that Ryanair’s employee forums were controlled by the company and that no pilots’ forum or operative internal dispute procedure was in place. The union maintained that the forums provided consultation rather than collective bargaining.