‘We want to work but the conditions are unreasonable’
The Glasheen, Cork city native, a single parent to a five-year-old boy, has worked for Aer Lingus for the last 12 years and says she always felt proud to wear the uniform.
“It is very upsetting. There is a lot of uncertainty there, especially as a single mum,” she said.
“At the end of the day, it is down to me to provide for my son financially and I have financial commitments. We don’t know what is going to happen.
“People are having to look at this on a day-to-day basis because if you let panic set in it would be hard to manage in your day-to-day life.”
She and her colleagues, Ms Quin said, take great pride in their work.
“The best part of my day is hearing passengers saying ‘Thank you for a lovely flight’ and ‘You can’t compare to Aer Lingus’.
“We are front-line staff and Aer Lingus’s tagline is ‘Enjoy your flight’ and we feel for the most part they do enjoy it because of the service onboard and the genuine warmth towards the passengers. Service and the care of our passengers is our main priority and we are renowned for it worldwide.”
Ms Quin said it was very sad to see the company hiring in aircraft when she and her colleagues were available to work — and wanted to work as loyal Aer Lingus employees.
“There are only a small number of issues here and our trade union IMPACT is open to negotiation and want nothing more than to enter talks to resolve this.
“We have no issue with working 850 block hours in the air each year. It is just how it is being implemented.”
She said in her case, she could be expected to go in at 10am but then be told she was not needed to work until 1pm — three hours later — adding another three hours on to the end of the day. How can I be expected to provide childcare for my child in that situation?” she asked, adding there can be variations on the rostered times of up to five hours. “I could also be expected to go away for 26 days to work on another base. I could potentially be moved on to transatlantic flights. On Sunday, the last flight I worked, I was on reserve at 1pm and my duty did not finish until 2.06am.
“We were expected not to take a meal break during that time. There was no opening for a meal-break in-flight without the service being compromised.
“The reason I am off the payroll was that at 11.45pm, I took a meal-break on the ground in London.”
Ms Quin said it was a very upsetting time for her and her colleagues.
“But we are very strong and united as cabin crew and we are standing together. We realise the current economic state; people are unemployed and we sympathise with that. We do feel very lucky to have jobs and we are not disputing pay.
“We have regularly taken pay cuts. We have given enough yet they still want more and the conditions they are imposing on us are totally unreasonable.”
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