Labour Court Discussions Friday 22 Jan 2010

LabourCourt decision

On Friday the Labour Court heard extensive talks about the dispute.

Despite the IAA claiming that this dispute was about a 6% pay claim, to be added to ‘outrageous salaries’ on top of ‘outrageous working conditions’ and ATCOs not willing to contribute to the ‘most generous pension scheme in Ireland’; the discussions in the Court were solely about the dispute about change as alleged by IMPACT all along; that the process of change ie project work required discussion.  That a bone-fide dispute exists between the parties.

The union were seeking those discussions which is why they imposed a ban on members working on projects.  The IAA took IMPACT to the LRC  last Thursday week, in trying to remove the ban; this should have led to full and frank discussion; alas the IAA chose to withdraw from those talks.  The IAA later escalated the dispute by suspending ATCOs refusing to work on the projects, last Tuesday.  The union took immediate action to the suspensions by calling a stop work meeting on the Wednesday.

The stop work last Wednesday was about restoring the suspended ATCOs to the payroll.  The claims made by the IAA that it was about something else were proven false in Court.  The Court agreed that this dispute was about change; whether it be ‘normal on-going change’ or ‘significant change’ is the matter still outstanding.

This matter will now be dealt with by the Labour Court on Tuesday 26 Jan in the am.  This will be binding arbitration.  This is the first time that the IAA has agreed to be bound by the Labour Court in over 10 years.  This doesn’t mean that IMPACT representing the ATCOs will automatically win; far from it. But we will have our day in Court, which is all we ever wanted.

The Labour Court will hear the 6% T16 Claim on Tuesday 26 in the pm as originally scheduled in August 09.  See, this stop work action wasn’t about a pay claim. The independent LRC appointed assessor has already found that it can be paid, every worker at the IAA expects it will be paid and back dated.

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What just happened?

Today’s action was not about 6% – there’s a Labour Court hearing about the 6% next week; repeat this is not about a 6% pay claim.

This is about 14 ATCOs suspended without pay.  We have asked the IAA, as has the Labour Court, to reinstate the ATCOs and 286 ATCOs would resume normal work and no closures would be needed.  The IAA has refused the Labour Courts offer on the basis that the controllers would have to work as directed; which would be unacceptable if they then also refused to talk; which the IAA has no intent on doing.

The ATCOs won’t return to work as directed against the IMPACT directive, made to encourage discussion; the IAA won’t talk.

The IMPACT directive issued in response to changed work practices, new procedures and concerns about safety.  The directive applied from 1 January 2010.  Some of these projects such as COOPANS is a long-term project and some ATCOs have been working on this project for over 12 months; however the time to talk about the effect of this new technology is upon us.  There was a very unfruitful LRC last Thursday about project work and the directive effecting it; the IAA representatives told the LRC they had no authority to act, so why were they there?

The IAA suspended 14 controllers without following their own disciplinary processes; no warnings verbal or otherwise were issued.   Today’s meeting was all about why this has happened and the need to get the 14 ATCOs (and the next wave due next week, aren’t suspended) back on the payroll first.

We would also like the IAA to talk to us about the changes; nothing more.

At the meeting I attended today there was unanimous support for further action for only one reason, to get the suspended ATCOs back on the books; so unless the IAA steps back and changes its decision it may get much worse than today’s 4 hour stoppage.

Repeat today’s stoppage was nothing to do with the 6% T16 agreement, nor the proposed changes to the pension scheme; those events are coming up soon though.

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Why retiring older is a bad idea

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Profits – schmofits

Over the past 5 years the IAA has reported huge annual profits.

In recent times the IAA has never recorded less than 12M annual after tax profit totalling over the last five reports to be no less than 66.5M.

There is reportedly a crisis with the pension fund. Why? In 2007 the total reported net liabilities of the pension fund were just over 56M.

The company recently published that the pension fund is some 248M in debt.  200M extra in debt in 2 years, whilst still running a profit, is this an accounting trick? Who is to blame, are they still employed? There should be a national enquiry to find out who is responsible.  She/Him/they and their management team should all be sacked if it’s true that they squandered 200M in just 2 years; surely the buck stops with the CEO?

CEO – he should go, come on sing with me now, CEO – he should go!

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