THE GENERAL SECRETARY of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has been appointed to the board of directors of Aer Lingus, as talks continue at the Labour Relations Commission on the ongoing industrial problems at the airline.

ICTU’s David Begg had already been on the airline’s board since 2008, having been appointed by the airline’s Employee Share Ownership Trust in 2008.

The Irish Times reports that the trust had lost its automatic right to make appointments to the board last year, however, when it distributed some of its shares to its members.

The appointment comes as talks continue at the Labour Relations Commission attempting at resolving the two-week-old industrial dispute at the airline, which has seen 300 staff taken off the payroll in protest at new staff rostering.

Aer Lingus expects flight disruptions to continue today as a result of the dispute; passengers will be contacted by email or text message if their flights are to be disrupted.

RTÉ reports that the LRC’s Kevin Foley was last night in contact with both the IMPACT trade union, representing the airline’s staff, and the Aer Lingus management team, trying to ensure that talks continued today.

The talks had adjourned on Friday with no agreement, though both sides acknowledged that some progress had been made.

The airline yesterday confirmed that the ongoing difficulties had taken its toll on bookings. The dispute is costing the airline an estimated €400,000 a day in rental of staff and aircraft from other airlines.