LEGISLATION INTRODUCED after the Irish Ferries controversy is being examined by Siptu with a view to invoking it in its fight against large-scale cuts at Aer Lingus.
Unions at the airline are opposed to a plan to cut 1,500 jobs through redundancy or outsourcing as part of a €74 million cost-saving plan announced on Monday. The airline employs just over 4,000.
Siptu sources said that the union was studying the potential to use, for the first time in Irish industrial relations, the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) legislation which came into force last year.
The legislation allows for an independent panel to consider whether redundancies in a company are actually genuine redundancies as opposed to situations where existing workers are replaced by lower-paid staff.
If this is found to be the case, the issue can be referred to the Labour Court. If the Labour Court finds that an exceptional collective redundancy situation exists but employees are dismissed in any event, it is open to the workers to claim unfair dismissal and possibly receive compensation of up to five years' pay.
The legislation also allows the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to refuse to pay the 60 per cent statutory redundancy rebate to an employer if he or she believes the dismissals are exceptional collective redundancies.
The move by Siptu to consider use of the legislation goes some way to explain a decision by the union to ballot members immediately for all-out industrial action.
Under the legislation, a union has to be in dispute with a company before it can seek to refer cases to the independent panel.
Separately yesterday, Impact, which represents cabin crew and pilots at Aer Lingus, said that it would oppose any move to "export" jobs as part of the airline's cost-cutting initiative.
Impact official Christina Carney said that the Aer Lingus proposals asked for too much. "The country is in recession and unemployment is rising. To export jobs during a recession is unacceptable, and we will fight any attempts to do that. That fight begins by talking with management."
It is understood that the airline's cost-savings plan was noted yesterday by the Cabinet. At its meeting yesterday the Government is also believed to have acknowledged that the company had taken a commercial decision on the issue.
However, speaking later, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he hoped the industrial relations processes would provide the forum where management and staff representatives could sit down and discuss the issues and come up with solutions.
Aer Lingus says that the savings are vital to ensure its viability.