Aer Lingus to open Belfast base with pilots’ consent
Transatlantic schedules meant some pilots were not immediately available to cast their vote in the ballot on whether to accept recommendations on Belfast hammered out between pilots’ unions and the company.
It is almost certain they will be accepted when that ballot is complete tomorrow afternoon.
However, the agreement reached over terms and conditions at the new base in what Aer Lingus chief executive described as a “landmark deal”, is only the first cog on a very big wheel of industrial disharmony.
The pilots, like the cabin crews and ground crews, are still subject to a pay freeze for refusing to accept the €20 million cost-cutting package Programme for Continuous Improvement 2007 (PCI-07), which will see their pay packets and holidays reduced.
They are being deprived of a 7.5% pay increase due to them under the social partnership agreement Towards 2016 and annual increments, unless staff accept a cost-saving package. According to SIPTU it will hit workers in their pay packets by as much as €5,000.
Yesterday Dermot Mannion said the talks with pilots over the weekend had set the scene for talks over PCI-07.
“I hope there will not be future disruption. The message we have put out over the weekend is that there will be no lack of willingness on the part of senior management to spend the hours to engage with the staff and the other unions to bring all the cost initiatives to a conclusion. I am confident we will get a reciprocal response from the staff and the unions in other areas to move forward in good faith,” he said.
However, that is not how the unions see it. In a communique issued to its members yesterday, Michael Halpenny of SIPTU voiced the trade union movement’s approach to the dispute.
“The pay freeze has been referred to the National Implementation Body as a flagrant breach of Towards 2016,” he said.
“In the interim we have stated that industrial action has not been ruled out. We have made it clear to the company our members are not going to be blackmailed into concession of PCI-07 by the company’s pay freeze. There can be no discussions around PCI-07 while company’s pay freeze remains in existence.”
