Siptu has blamed flight delays and security breaches on the increased use of subcontractors in the airline industry.

The union also claims that the outsourcing of work is an attack on the pay and conditions of airport workers.

It plans to protest outside a meeting of air industry bosses taking place in Dublin this morning.

“We’ve seen subcontracting resulting in workers who are subcontracted in on 30-40% less rates of pay than direct employees,” said Siptu’s aviation organiser Gregg Ennis.

“So this is a way of the airlines, and indeed the airports, moving away from their obligations to provide working terms and conditions and hiding behind a subcontracting scenario where workers are treated comparably much poorer than those who are directly employed.”