Pilots’ union says Icelandair email breaks labour law

The chairman of the Icelandic Airline Pilots Association (FÍA) says an email Icelandair sent to the union’s members violates the law, mbl.is reported. The message, sent earlier on Friday by the airline’s director of flight operations, Andri Már Magnússon, included a company proposal in the ongoing contract dispute.

“If people simply read the laws on trade unions and industrial disputes, they can see what this is,” said FÍA chairman Jón Þór Þorvaldsson. “I’m sorry that people are doing this.”

Jón Þór declined to comment on whether the pilots would accept the proposal, saying it contained “serious factual errors”. He said he wanted to review it with the negotiating committee and union members next week before commenting.

He said Icelandair had taken similar steps before, though not during this dispute, and that the sender of the email had been involved in comparable or worse situations in the past. “This is nothing that comes as a great surprise,” he said.

Icelandair and FÍA signed an agreement in June to continue negotiations, with the aim of renewing their collective agreement by 15 September. No agreement has yet been reached. The talks have been under way for about two years.

Jón Þór said the parties had intended to reach a deal before the previous agreement expired, to give the company predictability and send a message to the market. That had not happened, he said, partly because of recurring incidents like the email.

He said the shared goal should be an agreement that works for both sides, as their interests are aligned, but that several major issues remained difficult to resolve. Asked whether the parties were working towards the same outcome, he said he hoped Icelandair’s representatives were, but that FÍA had not felt that at the negotiating table.