Agreement reached in Aer Lingus talks

An agreement has been reached between Aer Lingus management and SIPTU members that will see the changes sought by management now taking place, and the threatened industrial action will not now take place tomorrow morning at Dublin airport.

After 34 hours of negotiations, the deal was reached just before 9pm tonight.

The details of the agreement are that overtime will be cut and the flexible deployment of staff will eliminate the need for extra staff to be recruited. Take-home pay which SIPTU members had been concerned about will not be affected in any way however the issue of employing future staff on lower rates of pay was not discussed at all.

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion said, “We have agreed on the implementation of productivity and cost cutting measures with SIPTU and we await the outcome of their internal ballot process. Nothing will be implemented until the ballot is completed.”

This ballot is expected to take approximately two weeks, following a number of SIPTU briefing meetings.

SIPTU National Industrial Secretary Gerry McCormack said, “Agreement has been reached subject to a ballot of our members. We accept there has been genuine commitment by both sides to reach an agreement and the process has protected SIPTU members’ interests and also prevented disruption to Aer Lingus passengers.”