Aer Lingus payments - Close this loophole

AS Aer Lingus management and Impact representatives meet the Labour Relations Commission separately today British Airways management are preparing for a strike scheduled for next week.

Both conflicts centre on pay and conditions for cabin crew and Aer Lingus management have identified a loophole in employment legislation that must be closed.

As Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar has pointed out Aer Lingus has threatened to fire 1,200 cabin crew and re-employ fewer than 1,000 on inferior terms. The airline hopes to recoup 60% of redundancy costs — an estimated €10 million — through the social insurance fund.

These workers are being fired but they are not redundant. Rather their colleagues, under new conditions, are expected to do their work. The work still exists so this is a re-negotiation, not a redundancy situation, and therefore the taxpayer should not have any liability. It’s well past time this loophole was closed.