Painful Outcome To Deal As Jobs Go At Aer Lingus

Although industrial action has been called off - as a deal on cost cutting is brokered by staff at national airline Aer Lingus - there's still jobs being lost.

Over 150 posts as cabin crew are expected to go right away as part of the deal that even the staff's own union has described as "painful".

Strike action was shelved earlier this month after agreement with the airline on a way forward - but one that would still mean 94 job losses among cabin crew at Dublin, Cork, and Shannon airports.

It also agreed that an additional 60 jobs had to go at Shannon Airport - although many of these workers will be offered some redeployment within the airline.

But the union insisted this week that it had "significantly reduced" the 420 job losses originally envisaged, held on to a "slimmed-down" Shannon base, and ensured Irish crew continue to work on transatlantic routes.

It admitted these gains were at the "cost of new productivity measures, deferred pay increases and some job reductions".

Coupled with a reduction in the ground-handling workforce, which has been negotiated between management and SIPTU, the cabin crew redundancies will mean at least 300 job losses at the airline before March next year.

Impact announced it had reached agreement with the airline following prolonged discussions at the Labour Relations Commission.

Talks have been under way over the last two weeks in a bid to find an alternative to management's plans to shave €50m off its staff costs which would have meant more severe job losses and out-sourcing of many cabin crew jobs - and the employment of out-sourced crew.

Management planned to close its Heathrow and Shannon bases and employ US-based crew on flights to New York, Boston and San Francisco.

The airline also planned to outsource its 1,300-strong ground-handling operations - but has agreed an alternative plan with SIPTU,.

It gave unions a deadline of December 1 to reach agreement on alternative plans before it would plough ahead with its original plan.

The job losses are a central feature of management's decision to reduce its costs by a total of €74m after suffering €20m losses this year, with further losses expected in 2009.

Other elements of the deal include the deferral of pay rises due to staff under the national pay deal until July 2010 and new pay scales for recruits after a five-year period.

See: Deal At Aer Lingus Ends Strike Threat

(BMcC/KMcA)