Aer Lingus roster row hits new low

THE stand-off between Aer Lingus and its cabin crew reached a new low yesterday with the removal of 32 staff from the payroll and the cancellation of a further three flights.

The airline held up to 54 meetings with individual staff who, it said, had refused to operate flights under a new roster system.

At each meeting — at which the staff had representation from their trade union IMPACT — each staff member read a prepared statement setting out their position to the company.

According to IMPACT, management demanded that they sign an undertaking “to do anything management instruct them to do in the future”.

“The staff are refusing to sign,” a union spokesman said. “The management then told them that they are being taken off duties/payroll. Management is not giving any indication of how long they will be off duties/payroll”.

The knock-on effect of the suspensions and refusal by staff to work the new rotas led to a number of flight cancellations and delays.

Two flights between Dublin and Chicago were cancelled yesterday as was a flight from New York to Dublin. A flight from Dublin to New York and two flights between Dublin and Madrid were operated by a hire-in aircraft.

Today , flights EI 650 and EI 651 to and from Frankfurt, EI 582 and EI 583 to and from Malaga, EI 594 and EI 595 to and from Madrid, EI 606 and EI 607 to and from Amsterdam as well as EI 176 and EI 177 to and from London were all cancelled.

“Aer Lingus sincerely regrets that these flights have been cancelled,” the airline said. “The sole responsibility for these cancellations, and the corresponding disruption to customers travel plans, lies with Impact trade union members, who continue to take industrial action despite 15 months of negotiation, agreement, clarification, conciliation and binding arbitration.”

Last night, an IMPACT spokesman repeated that their work to rule had not affected productivity or resulted in any delays or cancellations.

“The airline are taking a much more aggressive position and their decision to suspend staff was bound to affect flights. Meanwhile, our staff are all turning up every day, available for duty,” he said.

Among the workers who have so far been suspended and/or removed from payroll are four cabin crew workers based in Cork, and eight members based in Dublin who, according to IMPACT, were told by the company on Monday night that they were being taken off duties because they had taken meal breaks while working a series of ‘doubled’ duties after completing in excess of the required working hours.

Cabin crew and management at Aer Lingus are agreed that each worker should complete 850 annual “block” hours. However, they have been at odds for more than a year as to how that total should be achieved.