CityJet are planning on offering redundancy to fifty-seven Dublin-based pilots as a row brews steadily amid the company’s struggles during the covid emergency.
The local pilots staged a protest at the airline’s headquarters in Swords today accusing the company of “offshoring” their jobs, as Citywest intend on having their Irish registered aircraft flown by pilots from outside the state in a huge blow to staff today.
Forsa Trade Union Official Ian McDonnell has been engaging with the company in an bid to reduce redundancies.
“You have an Irish registered company, choosing to operate out of Ireland.They are taking a position whereby it’s going to make all of it’s pilots working from Ireland redundant.”
“But they are at the same time admitting that they’ll have to recruit very quickly in other jurisdictions to fly out of their other bases.”
“So there is a danger then that they could take this opportunity to let go all of these pilots and recruit elsewhere on far lesser terms and conditions.”
The pilots, represented by IALPA, a branch of Fórsa, have said that a number of wide ranging proposals by pilots designed to keep some jobs at the Dublin base were all rejected by CityJet. These proposals included:
- Up to 50 per cent pay cuts until April 2021
- The termination of all terms and conditions to facilitate total flexibility
- An IALPA-designed a training plan to move pilots from one aircraft to another, which pilots say is a cheaper option than redundancy for the company.
