DAA staff in line for 8.5% pay rise over four years

Nearly 2,000 staff at airport operator DAA are to receive pay increases of 8.5 per cent over a period of just over four years under new proposals brokered at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The proposals would also involve staff represented by the trade union Siptu receiving a €500 lump sum next year as part of a planned pay realignment that would see the union's members move to a new payroll arrangement from January 2019.

The proposed deal also provides for the establishment of a working group to look at a profit-sharing arrangement at the company.

Those covered by the new pay proposals include airport police and fire service personnel as well as security and other operational staff.

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The proposed deal runs from the beginning of July 2016 to the end of July 2020 and is set out in two separate stages. For the first nine months of the term, there would be no pay changes. Staff would receive a 3 per cent rise backdated to April 2017 and a 2.75 per cent increase backdated to the beginning of April 2018.

Proposals

A further 2.75 per cent rise would come into effect in June 2019.

The second stage of the deal would involve improved engagement on change and relationships between the union and the company.

The WRC proposals state that, if the deal is accepted, there would be no cost increasing claims over its lifetime. However, the arrangement also allows for further improvements in terms and conditions in return for specific productivity changes.

The deal says that continued co-operation with normal ongoing change would apply during the life of the agreement and would “facilitate normal operational matters requiring immediate actions during the terms of the agreement in line with existing agreements”.

The DAA has previously negotiated separate agreements with Impact (now Forsa) and Mandate, which represent other grades of staff.

DAA is the operator of Dublin and Cork airports and in total employs about 3,700 people.

Siptu told its members earlier this week that its section committee representing staff in the company had considered the proposals arising from the talks at the WRC and had decided to recommend acceptance in a forthcoming ballot.