Aer Lingus deal to secure Shannon base
The deal, agreed as part of €50 million in staff savings at the airline, also reduces the number of proposed job cuts among cabin crew. Nonetheless, there will still be job cuts and staff must accept new productivity measures as well as deferred pay increases.
The deal will be put to a ballot of cabin crew over the next two weeks.
Union officials said it contained a lot of sacrifice for cabin crew, but reduced the number of proposed job cuts including the retention of the Shannon base. If accepted the deal includes:
* Retention of Irish-based cabin crew and a slimmed-down Shannon base. The company had originally planned to cut 420 cabin crew and replace almost all Irish-based long-haul crew with US-based staff. Under this deal, job losses are reduced to 94, plus a separate reduction of 60, which is due to schedule changes out of Shannon airport.
* The deferral of pay increases under the Towards 2016 pay deal until July 2010 and deferral of pay increments for two years. There will be pay scales for new entrants. However, pay scales remain unaltered for the first five years to protect new entrants.
* Increased productivity measures.
IMPACT official Christina Carney said the package, negotiated with the assistance of the Labour Relations Commission, would be painful for cabin crew.
“This is a tough package for our members to accept, but we are recommending it because it achieves our main aim of minimising job losses and keeping work in the west of Ireland. If the deal is accepted we will certainly expect management to remember these sacrifices when the aviation industry picks up, as it will,” she said.
