Background information

Aer Lingus and its pilots concluded a recovery agreement over the summer which guarantees a level of income for pilots while travel restrictions remain due to COVID-19 and the level of air travel remains low. The agreement was backed in a ballot by members of IALPA/Fórsa by a margin of 97%.

Content of measure

The agreement provides for pilots to be paid 50% of basic salary over the summer months of July and August, as well as September. This is to increase to 60% from 1 October 2020, followed by further increases to 70% on 1 January 2021, and 80% from 1 April 2021.

Where staff work for less than half their hours due to a lack of business, any "overpayments" will be recouped when the airline recovers.

The agreement states: "no pilot member will suffer involuntary unpaid leave, lay-off, furlough and/or redundancy" for the period of the agreement.

Pay will return to what it was before the COVID-19 crisis when the period of the agreement ends in September 2021.

Use of measure

The agreement is currently being implemented.

Contents

• Basic working time
• Income protection
• Pay freezes or cuts

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Parents in employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Trade unions Company / Companies	Employees

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Only trade unions
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Aer Lingus and its pilots' union (IALPA/Fórsa) concluded a recovery agreement over the summer which guarantees a level of income for pilots while travel restrictions remain due to COVID-19 and the level of air travel remains low.

Views and reactions

The agreement was backed in a ballot by members of IALPA/Fórsa by a margin of 97%.

However, there was a dispute with other unions at the airline - representing ground crew and cabin crew - who stated that their members were not offered the same opportunity to ballot on the agreement.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said: "From early in our discussions, all parties accepted that public health restrictions would cause the ICTU group of unions to have difficulties consulting with and balloting their members in the normal way. It was therefore accepted by all parties that the discussion be structured in the form of a document that could be accepted by the unions rather than requiring a balloting process in the traditional way."

Sectors and occupations

Sources

• 17 June 2020: Aer Lingus pilots' wages to recover to 80% by April (www.rte.ie)
• 21 June 2020: Aer Lingus pilots get a deal as cabin/ground crew miss out (www.independent.ie)