Dublin Airport Authority goes to High Court to stop strikes in Irish airports

Dublin, Shannon, and Cork threatened with industrial action

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DAA, Terminal 2, Dublin Airport

Photo by DAA

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The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) will ask the Irish High Court next week to restrain the threatened industrial action that would effectively close down Dublin, Shannon, and Cork airports.

According to the Irish Times, the authority granted leave to give the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) notice of its intention to seek injunctions restraining the proposed strike actions.

Senior counsel for the DAA Brian O’Moore reportedly told Judge Maureen Clarke that the authority had been given notice of the action by SIPTU following a ballot of members in July.

O’Moore said there were issues to be resolved between the trade union and the DAA in connection with a pension scheme known as the Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme.

Negotiations had been continuing with SIPTU in an effort to resolve the issues. O’Moore told the court the DAA was involved in separate agreements relating to two critical groups of workers employed by the authority, the fire and police service and the security search unit.

Those agreements reportedly provided that SIPTU would not engage in any strike, walk-out, or suspension of work and that all work issues would be resolved through the Labour Court and the labour relations mechanism.

O’Moore said there were ongoing negotiations relating to the pension issues and the DAA claim it would be a breach of existing agreements if any industrial action was to go ahead.

Judge Clarke said the DAA had a reasonable cause of action and that it was in the public interest she should grant short service of the authority's intention to seek injunctions next Friday.

O’Moore said SIPTU had been told by the DAA that if the authority did not hear from them by nine o’clock on Tuesday the authority would make its application to the court.

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