Lawyers for an Aer Lingus pilot pursuing rights complaints at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have said he is “simply not comfortable at all with having to cross a picket line” for his hearing.
Hearings into complaints by pilot Declan McCabe under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 were due to resume on Wednesday for the 14th day at Lansdowne House in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
However, hearings at the WRC were picketed by union members as part of a one-day strike by 300,000 public sector staff across the country as part of a pay dispute with the Government.
“My client is a member of Fórsa through Ialpa, the pilots’ wing of it ... and he’s just simply not comfortable at all with having to cross a picket line, and remain across it,” said counsel for the pilot David Byrnes, instructed by Setanta Solicitors.
“He wants to return to where he came from, as do I as a professional who respects the constitutional right to strike, as does my instructing solicitor,” Byrnes said.
Applying for an overnight adjournment, he said, “My client does not wish to proceed with the hearing today in these circumstances.”
Byrnes told adjudicator John Harraghy that the WRC administration had confirmed separately to his client, his solicitor and himself: “Yes, everything was going ahead.”
“We had interpreted that as ‘going ahead as normal’. We were taken by surprise, to say the least, to be met this morning by a picket line, and regrettably, that picket line had to be crossed this morning,” he said.
Byrnes said he had discussed the matter with counsel for Aer Lingus, Tom Mallon, instructed by Arthur Cox for the respondent, and said that the hearing of evidence in the case could still conclude by Friday, with closing submissions next month.
Mallon said: “I understand the concerns of Mr Byrnes and his client. It would be inappropriate for me to say anything further.”
Adjudicator John Harraghy said: “I understand the concerns and I think it might be prudent to adjourn if people aren’t comfortable being in the room today. I’d much prefer people are at ease attending a hearing such as this. I’d like to continue in the spirit we have so far.”
Harraghy granted the adjournment.
McCabe was demoted as a disciplinary sanction following a company probe into an incident at Dublin Airport, when an Airbus A321XLR, flying from Munich with 156 passengers and crew aboard, failed to link up with the radio navigation beacon for the new north runway.
The complainant said what happened was “a non-event from a flying point of view” and that the relevant Aer Lingus manual left it up to his judgment to decide whether to report it.
Two other WRC employment rights cases are proceeding before other adjudicators at Lansdowne House, though another hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning has not proceeded and the Labour Court is not sitting.