Management to hold talks with Shannon Aer Lingus staff

AER Lingus staff at Shannon should know more about how the company’s cutbacks will impact on them by Thursday evening, as management are to come to Clare to discuss the situation with them. The company’s corporate affairs director, Enda Corneille, told The Clare Champion that no specific details on where redundancies will occur will be made public until all workers had been spoken to and that discussions with Cork and Shannon employees would take place this Thursday.

In June, the airline went to the brink of scrapping its Shannon-New York service, but eventually opted not to as Delta suspended its winter service to JFK. At the time, Aer Lingus said it was keeping the route under review and it could face the axe in the upcoming round of cutbacks.
In a statement this week, Aer Lingus claimed it was looking to save €97 million. “Aer Lingus has developed a two-stage transformation plan to reduce costs and remove legacy work practices enabling it to compete more effectively against a peer group with significantly lower operating costs.
“The changes to be implemented under the plan are expected to reduce Aer Lingus’ operating costs, excluding fuel by €97 million per annum, comprising staff cost savings of €74 million and non-staff cost savings of €23 million.”
There will be big cuts in staff numbers, according to the statement. “Changes in staff numbers resulting from a reduced flight schedule and changes to work practices are expected to result in a surplus of approximately 489 positions in operational areas and some support areas.
“While it is hoped that many of these redundancies will be achieved on a voluntary basis or through releasing fixed term staff at the end of their contract period, compulsory redundancy may be necessary and Aer Lingus reserves the right to reduce staff numbers on a compulsory basis if agreement on changes with staff cannot be reached.
“In addition, if it is not possible to deliver the required cost savings in line with the plan, and within the required timeframe, it may be necessary to reduce staff numbers further in order to ensure the continued viability of Aer Lingus.
“These numbers are in addition to approximately 100 staff that have already been informed that they will leave the organisation before the end of the year at the end of their fixed term contracts.”
It also sets out plans to cut another 187 jobs through the introduction of new IT systems.
The statement outlines plans to introduce reductions in basic pay for those earning above €35,000 per annum and it claims that Aer Lingus is spending more on staff than its competitors.
“While the board of Aer Lingus recognises that staff cost savings have been delivered across many areas of the business in previous years, an objective analysis shows that operating costs, and in particular staff costs, do not reflect current and expected trading conditions and are significantly out of line with peers. Therefore, the proposed changes are necessary to better align operating costs with those of Aer Lingus’ competitors.”
Pensions will also be affected. “Aer Lingus is proposing to introduce a new defined contribution scheme for the future service of all employees, which will attempt to recognise through higher contribution rates, past service in the business but will on average cost the company no more than the current schemes.”
The cuts are set to be opposed vigorously by unions and on Wednesday, SIPTU’s National Industrial secretary Gerry McCormack voiced his concerns.
“Job cuts seem to be extreme and draconian and an over reaction to the current difficult economic climate. SIPTU will be calling a national meeting of its shop stewards early next week which will consider the union’s response to the company’s proposals.”
While he said the union would be looking for clarification on some of the cutbacks, he didn’t feel the cuts were justified.
“On the basis of the statement by the company today, we cannot see any basis for pay cuts, job losses or changes to the pension scheme of SIPTU members.”