Aer Lingus staff to decide on strike action

AER LINGUS workers will this morning decide whether to proceed with industrial action over the company’s decision to implement a pay freeze on its 3,700 staff.

SIPTU which represents the airline’s 1,800 ground staff will meet with its member committees from Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports at 10am to decide what response to give to the company’s decision to hold back on pay increases of 7.5% due under the social partnership agreement Towards 2016 and annual increments.

The company is withholding the increases unless the staff agree to the €20 million cost-cutting document Programme for Continuous Improvement (PCI-07). Sources in the union say the workers must consider whether it would simply be playing into the airline’s hands to immediately announce industrial action at the airline’s quietest time of the year.