Ryanair awaits London ruling after Irish court grants injunction to stop strikes
The Irish High Court has granted Ryanair an injunction to prevent its Irish pilots from going on strike tomorrow, as the budget airline awaits a ruling from the English High Court over the industrial action.
An application by the airline for an injunction to block the two day strike will be heard by the High Court in London later today.
Ryanair had gone to the Dublin court to obtain an order against Forsa – parent body of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (IALPA) – to prevent its Irish pilots from striking on Thursday and Friday.
The budget airline’s lawyers had told the court that Forsa had not allowed the mediation process to be completed before announcing the walkout, and said the action would breach an agreement made between the airline and union last year.
Read more: Pilots union lambastes Ryanair ‘bullying’ amid attempts to block strike
Britain’s pilots’ union criticised the budget airline when the legal action was announced earlier this week.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said the airline had “wasted time” by trying to use “legal technicalities” to persuade the High Court to block a strike due to take place on Thursday and Friday.
Balpa also said it had invited Ryanair to join it at talks this week but was rebuffed.
A Ryanair spokesperson said in response: “Balpa, who represent a small number of highly paid UK pilots, should not be disrupting the return holiday flights of UK families later this week when Ryanair captains already earn £180,000 per annum and are now seeking unjustified pay increases of between 65 per cent to 121 per cent.”
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