Aer Lingus to pay staff €1,700 to back new pay talks plan

A new proposed agreement between Siptu and the airline centres around a contentious pay freeze threatened as part of Aer Lingus’s Covid Recovery Plan. It was recommended for acceptance by the Labour Court in January but was subsequently rejected in a ballot by staff.

Employees will now ballot again in August on the new deal under which management and the union are proposing to engage in “future pay discussions” in September 2022 and “endeavour to conclude these discussions by the end of November 2022”. The outcome of this would take effect in 2023.

If staff vote to endorse two documents, entitled Addendum Agreement 2022 and Clarification Agreement 2022, then the €1,700 would be paid to each staff member “in the most tax-efficient way”.

Airline management would agree to hold off on a threat to cut roster duty allowances — which it wants to cut by 10pc — and this contentious issue would be considered as part of the pay negotiation in the autumn.

The issue of a reduction in terms and conditions for new recruits at the airline, which the management has sought, remains a bone of contention.

“Siptu have informed Aer Lingus that they intend to raise this issue again in the future pay discussions,” said the proposed agreement, adding that management’s position was unchanged.

In a communication to its members on Thursday, Siptu said that a meeting in April with Aer Lingus had led to “a frank exchange of views…in respect of the company’s continued pursuit of pay reductions in the face of their sister company BA commencing forward movement on pay and how that impacted on the workers across Aer Lingus.”

“At this meeting, the company accepted that the inflationary situation was very different when the Labour Court hearing occurred,” said the Siptu memo.