Aer Lingus redundancy plan 'brutal'
Aer Lingus reported an operating loss of 81 million euro
Wednesday March 10 2010
Trade union leaders have branded Aer Lingus redundancy plans brutal and unfair as the airline announced plans to cut wages and offer the minimum payout for laid-off cabin crew.
Impact said the offer being tabled was retribution for its vote against a 97 million euro cost-cutting scheme to cut 600 jobs across the company.
But Aer Lingus chief executive Christophe Mueller said there would be no sweetheart deal or retaliation after a deal hammered out in four months of negotiations was rejected.
"Cabin crew workers have proved themselves, over successive cost-saving programmes since 2001, to be a loyal and understanding group of workers," Impact said. "The proposals that have emerged today will very likely bring that loyalty to an end."
Aer Lingus issued the trade union with a five-point plan to make massive savings in the cabin crew division, beginning with 230 compulsory job losses and then a reduction in the number of supervisors.
The company described the cuts as "de-layering", which ultimately is expected to reduce the number of flight attendants in senior positions. Pay cuts and the minimum two-week redundancy package are also on the table.
The union, which met airline management, said the company plans to make the entire cabin crew redundant and re-hire roughly three quarters of the workers on new contracts.
Impact also said it believed the radical measures will damage the long-term sustainability of the airline by alienating almost half of the entire workforce.
The union, whose members rejected a deal brokered by mediators last year, said cabin crew have been hit by a series of restructuring and cost-saving schemes since 2001 up to 2008.
Aer Lingus is planning to lay off a total of 670 staff - 230 compulsory among the cabin crew ranks and 440 across the company - as part of a 97 million euro cost-saving. The compulsory redundancies will begin in 30 days. The airline announced an operating loss of 81 million euro (£73 million) for last year.
