Redundancy concerns remain following Dáil vote on Aer Lingus
by Niall Shanahan
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IMPACT has said that last week’s Dáil vote - to sell the Government’s 25.1% stake in Aer Lingus to airline group IAG - will elevate staff concerns about possible redundancies when the takeover is completed.
IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton commented, “We face a mounting challenge to secure the jobs and pay for existing and future staff. Too many questions remain about what management will look to extract from its workforce when the inevitable restructuring phase commences under new ownership.
“For the staff at Aer Lingus, genuine concerns about compulsory redundancies, the prospect of a further erosion of their terms and conditions, and the fallout from future restructuring under IAG all remain” he said.
Matt added that written assurances about compulsory redundancies and outsourcing, sent by Aer Lingus to the Government prior to the Dáil vote, are contingent upon achieving further efficiencies. “The employer will look to extract these from Aer Lingus staff. In other words, the employer is saying to staff that they have a choice between their job or a further erosion of their terms and conditions of employment” he said.
Matt said the union would now concentrate on using the system of registered employment agreements (REAs), legislation for which is due by the middle of the year. “Our approach will be to have the commitments we sought built into a future REA, which will be legally binding. There is no doubt in our minds that IAG will seek to avoid having a newly acquired Aer Lingus bound by such an agreement, so nobody is underestimating the scale of the challenge” he said.
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