Union anger at SR Technics

SIPTU last night criticised the Swiss management of airline maintenance firm SR Technics for not consulting with local staff before announcing the closure of its Dublin airport base with the loss of 1,135 jobs.

The company blamed the decision on the loss of major contracts from primary load customers in Dublin, the current business and economic forecasts as well as the high cost base of the operation. It said line maintenance operations, including those for Aer Lingus, would continue, but they would transfer to another operator in the future. Employee representatives have speculated the jobs might be going back to the company’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Local SIPTU organiser Jim Finnegan said the company made the unilateral announcement without any consultation on any rescue measures.

“Local management in SR Technics, the workers and the unions were not given the opportunity to formulate any type of response which might make it viable for the company to remain in Dublin. We were just not asked,” he said.

“All the unions, and SIPTU in particular, would not be found wanting if there was the possibility of saving the jobs.”

At the very least he said the union would be demanding those workers carrying out the line maintenance contract at present be transferred to any new operator which took on the role. The maintenance firm’s future in Dublin has been the subject of speculation ever since it lost three of the four lucrative contracts it had held with Aer Lingus last year.

Last June, SR Technics, formerly known as TEAM Aer Lingus, asked workers to accept more flexible work practices to save-guard jobs and, according to Mr Finnegan, the chief executive Bernd Kessler said that action would almost certainly rubber-stamp the company’s future in Dublin.

However, in January, it revealed it had lost a maintenance contract with Gulf Air. Most of that work was carried out in Dublin.

SIPTU is demanding not only that workers and local management be given time to evaluate what savings could be made to make the operation viable, but also that the Government play its part in saving the company, particularly as it has played its part in the demise.

“The fact is that in the not-to-distant past, the Government privatised Aer Lingus which then outsourced the work that had been successfully carried out by SR Technics staff for 10 years,” said Mr Finnegan.

However, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who met with Bernd Kessler yesterday, appeared resigned to the fact the company was going to press ahead with mass redundancies.

She expressed her regret and offered the help of support agencies.