Gardaí were called to Aer Lingus's headquarters when a pilot declared at a meeting with human resources that he was going on hunger strike unless the airline agreed to make disclosures to staff about alleged toxic fume incidents on its jets and to make payments to him worth €3 million, a witness has said.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has been hearing evidence from Carmel Byrne, a human resources legal case manager at the airline who was involved in a formal grievance process brought by Tom O’Riordan, as the airline continues its defence of a whistleblower penalisation complaint by the sacked pilot.
The airline denies Mr O'Riordan's allegations and has stated that no passengers or crew were exposed to any safety risk.
Ms Byrne said she was involved in a meeting with Mr O’Riordan in February 2024 at Aer Lingus’s offices at Dublin Airport at which Mr O’Riordan read a statement with "demands" about the payment of his salary and pension. He also asked that the airline make a statement to its staff with the details of "fume related issues".
If the airline did not comply, Mr O’Riordan said in his statement, he would "immediately" go on hunger strike and commence a protest action, the witness said.
The statement went on to say: "Someone will die from these exposures, be they crew or passengers. It is my categorical imperative to make sure that does not happen," the tribunal heard.
Ms Byrne said Mr O’Riordan had sought that Aer Lingus pay his salary until he hit retirement age at 65, a 21% pension contribution on top of that, and also mentioned a "gratuity in lieu of damages". "It was a figure that exceeded €3 million," she said.
Mr O’Riordan also wanted Aer Lingus to enter into a "written agreement to truthfully and honestly engage with others who’ve suffered from fume-related issues and injuries", Ms Byrne said.
"That day, he was refusing to leave the building, unless we as the people appointed to consider the grievance could agree to it, or get someone who could," she said.
"To be honest, we were a bit taken aback. I haven’t had someone go on hunger strike in a grievance hearing before," she said. "He said he was on hunger strike if we did not meet his demands and he would not leave Shamrock House," she said in answer to questions by counsel for the airline Tom Mallon BL.
Ms Byrne said the stand-off started at noon and continued at least past 6pm. "He was refusing to leave; the gardaí were called. He had advised the gardaí – the gardaí stated to me – that Mr O’Riordan had agreed to leave if I and Conor O’Dwyer would meet with him," she said.
Counsel for the complainant David Byrnes BL cross-questioned Ms Byrne today (TUES) on her part in the second of three disciplinary cases brought against his client in May 2024.
The witness said her part in the process was to "support" the decision-maker, Mary Montgomery, director of in-flight services, in conducting a probe into a post on social media by Mr O’Riordan.
The witness said Mr O’Riordan had admitted control of a social media account in the first disciplinary process and that since the post "came from the same account", it amounted to a "repeat occurrence of facts that were not in dispute".
This meant the step of a formal investigation could be skipped, she said. "It was the Aer Lingus social media team who were gathering all the information," Ms Byrne said.
Mr Byrnes said an investigation was meant to "establish the facts from the outset, not piggyback the other findings". He argued a higher standard of fairness was required in an internal disciplinary matter when a protected disclosure was involved.
He said that since the witness had no involvement in the instigation of the disciplinary process, she was "overreaching" by giving evidence on the use of the policy to skip the investigation stage.
"Why are you constantly trying to give your superiors cover?" counsel asked.
"I have no idea what I’m being asked right now," the witness said.
"Why are you stating under oath that skipping the investigation stage in this process is in compliance with the policy?" counsel said.
"I am satisfied we conducted – I suppose Ms Montgomery conducted – a fair process," the witness said.
The matter has been adjourned overnight and is scheduled to continue through the Easter legal holidays.
In internal complaints, Mr O’Riordan alleged that he was ordered to fly an empty Airbus A320 passenger jet, EI-DEN, on a repositioning flight from London to Dublin on 5 June 2023. He wrote in one document the jet was "unfit for service" and that he was "poisoned" by toxic fumes.
The tribunal has heard that an air safety report recorded that as the aircraft was on approach into Dublin Airport, Mr O’Riordan and his first officer noticed a smell – which his lawyers have attributed to "engine fumes", and donned oxygen masks.
Mr O’Riordan was evacuated to hospital by paramedics and did not return to working as a pilot, the WRC has heard.
He was dismissed from his €153,00-a-year job last September after what Aer Lingus’s legal team has called "a campaign of disruption" by the former passenger jet captain -- including the alleged posting of "falsehoods and untruths" on social media, mounting a picket on its offices, and a hunger strike.
He alleges that cuts to his sick pay in January 2024, its total withdrawal in April 2025, and company disciplinary processes pursued against him all amounted to whistleblower penalisation.
The airline’s lawyers say Mr O’Riordan has "defamed" the airline and senior members of its management team -- and that no passengers or crew were exposed to any safety risk.
The complaints against Aer Lingus Ltd are being heard under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Payment of Wages Act 1994, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.
Mr Byrnes is instructed by Setanta Solicitors in the matter; Mr Mallon by Arthur Cox LLP.
Reporting by Stephen Bourke
