SIPTU MEMBERS WORKING at Dublin Airport are planning to ballot for industrial action in a dispute over staff wages.
Staff employed by the airport authority, the daa, passed a vote of no confidence in daa management yesterday and in a pay system the company implemented in 2019.
Workers said that their wages were not paid into their accounts on time this week and that they have experience numerous other issues with the payment system.
In response, the daa has said that this week’s wages were transferred on Wednesday but that there was an issue with the bank transfer and that separately, a cyberattack on the payment software platform had disrupted the company’s attendance records.
Karan O’Loughlin, organiser of Siptu’s transport, energy, aviation and construction division, said that worker representatives voted no confidence in daa and the MyTime pay system at a special meeting of the Siptu daa section committee yesterday.
“Problems with this pay system have resulted in inaccurate payments to staff for the last nine consecutive months,” O’Loughlin said.
“This week wages for thousands of airport workers that were due to be paid on Wednesday 21 September did not arrive in their accounts on time.”
She said the issue was the “latest in a series of ongoing and consistent irregularities with the payment of wages to our members”, which included “underpayments, overpayments or no payment at all”.
“This has resulted in missed direct debits and a number of people missing work as they did not have money for petrol due to delays in the payment of their wages,” O’Loughlin said.
“After everything our members endured this summer, the least the company can do is ensure they get paid, in full, and on time. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that the daa think there is no urgency to rectify this issue.
“In May, following the presentation by Siptu members of a letter to the chairperson of the daa Board of Directors concerning the difficulties with the payment system, there was a commitment from the company that these problems would be rectified. This has not happened.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for daa said that employees had their pay transferred to their respective accounts on Wednesday, the scheduled pay day, “albeit a little later in the day than normal”.
The daa said that it informed its 3,000+ employees and trade union representatives when it became aware of an issue with the bank transfer and that it worked with its bank on ensuring payments were made to staff that same day.
“We kept everyone fully informed on progress on Wednesday and personally spoke to any colleagues who might not receive payment into a non-Irish financial institution until the next day. daa Management has already apologised to staff for any unnecessary stress or inconvenience this temporary delay may have caused,” the spokeperson said.
“This issue was completely separate to an issue with daa’s third-party time and attendance provider, Kronos, which was impacted by a cyber-attack to the MyTime software platform in December 2021.
“As a consequence of that cyber-attack, daa’s complex time and attendance system for a 24-hour, 365 days of the year operation, was unavailable for 14 weeks until the MyTime system was restored. All Kronos customers worldwide experienced similar outages.”
The spokesperson said that management has been in regular and frequent contact with all trade union partners while working through the issues the outage caused and the processes that were consequently put in place, “at a time of rapidly accelerated international travel with hundreds of new employees joining the business as a result”.
“daa has acknowledged the concerns with payroll that Siptu has raised on behalf of its members and we call on them to withdraw the unnecessary threat of industrial action and to continue to engage with us to resolve the issues within our agreed dispute resolution procedures.
“This matter has been and remains a top priority for both the daa Board of Directors and Executive Team who are fully committed to resolving any outstanding issues.”
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