Dublin Airport faces fresh strike threat

Industrial action is again on the cards at Dublin Airport Authority after staff said they were rejecting company proposals on the ailing pension scheme.

While Aer Lingus has been the centre of most media coverage on the Irish airlines superannuation scheme in recent weeks due to the threats of strike action, DAA and its staff have been in discussions on how to resolve the €750m deficit in the scheme.

Now Siptu has produced a document which, it says, breaks down how much their members in both DAA and Aer Lingus will receive on retirement depending on their years of service. It also details the staff expectation.

The union prefaces the document by saying that it is basing its figures on staff paying 8% to 9% into a new defined contribution scheme for their remaining years of service. Until now they were on IASS, a defined benefit scheme, which would be capped.

In the document, the difference between “staff expectation” and “Aer Lingus proposal” and “DAA proposal” appears significant.

For example, a person earning €42,000 per year who has 20 years to retirement and has worked for the company for 20 years would, according to the Siptu figures, receive €29,400 per year under the Aer Lingus proposals and €31,630 under the DAA proposals. The staff expectation would be €34,000.

Dermot O’Loughlin of Siptu said the union had written to DAA telling it the union’s DAA pension committee had rejected the financial proposals. He said he hoped the company might improve its offer.

The union’s committee is to meet again today to decide its next move.

Dublin Airport Authority said it “has not made any formal offer to trade unions in the ongoing pensions talks”.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Loughlin also expressed concern that, more than a week after unions agreed to go into a new conciliation process on the pension deficit with Aer Lingus at the Labour Relations Commission and Labour Court, no substantive discussions have taken place as yet.