Aer Lingus hit with €32.5m tax bill over ‘leave’ scheme

AER LINGUS faces a €32.5 million tax bill for its controversial “leave and return” scheme under which it allowed 715 staff to leave the airline and return under inferior terms and conditions.

In November 2008 Aer Lingus had threatened to outsource or make redundant more than 1,300 staff in order to secure €50m in cost savings.

However, after strike threats and crisis talks it agreed a scheme with SIPTU in which workers would receive a redundancy package of nine weeks’ pay per year of service with a minimum payment of €30,000.