Aer Lingus crews slam pay offer as strike begins

AER LINGUS cabin crews would lose out financially if they were to accede to changes sought by the company, the IMPACT trade union said yesterday.

As workers prepared o picket Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports this morning, IMPACT officials said company plans would leave workers worse off even if an overdue pay rise of 4%, due under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), was forthcoming.

Today's 24-hour strike is over pay and productivity. The strike has forced Aer Lingus to hire aircraft and crews to service its routes. There will be a further one-day stoppage on Monday. The threat of further actions at a later date have not been ruled out.

At a pre-strike briefing yesterday the union said that while workers had no objection in principle to the productivity changes sought by Aer Lingus, the company's current proposals would see crews work more hours with fewer breaks for less money.

IMPACT's cabin crew representative Christina Carney said workers had no choice but to go on strike.

"Aer Lingus is pioneering a new innovation in Irish industrial relations the pay increase that costs you money," she said.

The dispute, which involves 1,000 IMPACT staff representing 97% of Aer Lingus cabin crews, centres on faster turnaround times the time planes spend on the ground between flights required by the company.

Already workers have agreed to significant productivity increases such as security checks, cleaning checks and the operation of pay bars on aircraft in return for the 4% PPF pay rise, which is more than a year overdue.

However, the late addition of a company requirement for faster turnarounds angered workers who already felt they had met their obligations.

Although staff are not opposing faster turnarounds from 50 minutes to 25 minutes they say the company's approach would do away with existing payments for shortening turnaround times.

Currently staff are paid €27 for each flight where turnaround time is reduced.

But the company wants to ditch this payment before awarding the 4% PPF increase, which would only amount to roughly €10 a week.

Aer Lingus has already said that today's strike would only have minimal effect on flights and most of the airline's 20,000 passengers will be accommodated on 20 hired planes, including one from rival Ryanair.

Aer Lingus management expressed disappointment at the decision of cabin crew to go ahead with the strike, despite a Labour Court request to suspend the action while it considers ways to settle the dispute.