The Labour Court has recommended two substantial changes to the Aer Lingus staff redundancy offer. Tomorrow is the closing date for those wishing to avail of the airline's severance deals.
The Labour Court has said that the maximum payable under the severance programme should be increased from 130 weeks to 145 weeks pay. The company originally proposed nine weeks pay per year of service with a 130 week cap.
The court has also said that the maximum lump sum payable to those opting for early retirement should be raised to 78 weeks for everyone, provided that the amount involved does not exceed potential earnings. It also said that lump sums should be calculated on basic pay, including the latest increases due under Sustaining Progress.
SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Mick Halpenny, said last night that the company had refused to include the Sustaining Progress increase, due on October 1st, in its calculations, prior to the Labour Court hearing. The trade unions had referred the severance deal to the court.
Aer Lingus is seeking up to 1,325 redundancies and the package was expected to cost the airline up to €80 million. It is unclear what will be the final cost of the improved terms.
A company spokeswoman said last night that the Labour Court had been satisfied that the overall package on offer was reasonable and that it had contained "substantially improved terms" on previous severance offers by the airline. She added that the company had decided to accept the court's recommendations.
The spokeswoman also said the severance offer deadline would not be extended beyond tomorrow. (The deadline has already been extended once).
Mr Halpenny said the unions had referred the matter to the Labour Court on the basis that there were deficiencies in the existing offer which mainly affected longer-serving staff. He said they did not want any job losses, but wanted to address particular anomalies.
He said the recommendation had gone some way towards improving the lot of those with medium- to long-term service.
It is not yet clear if the firm will achieve 1,325 redundancies. It is understood that there have been substantial expressions of interest. One source said there had been up to 900. Another said there had been only 150 definitive applications to date.
