Unions and employers will press the European Commission to allow direct state aid by member-states to airlines in trouble when they meet senior officials at the "social dialogue" summit in Brussels today.
The meeting takes place against a backdrop of continuing sharp differences between unions and management at Aer Lingus on the scale of the crisis at the airline. Union representatives said yesterday that a 10 per cent increase in passenger numbers on projected figures for next year would raise question marks over the scale of the 2,500 redundancies sought.
The text of a joint statement by EU airline employers and trade unions will not be finalised until this morning. However, the fact that both sides have agreed to one at all should strengthen the hand of transport ministers such as Ms O'Rourke in changing existing rules when they meet in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Yesterday EU Transport Commissioner Ms Loyola de Palacio said the EU might sanction further state assistance and admitted there was a difficulty in maintaining a level playing field with US airlines.
Last night, the assistant general secretary of the 300,000 strong European Transport Workers Federation Ms Brenda O'Brien said, after intensive discussions with the various employer bodies: "We're very confident we'll have a joint statement with the employers on all the issues surrounding the financial problems in the aviation industry, including the employment issue."
It is understood the unions want any funding to finance redundancies in the aviation industry to be linked to retraining and employment programmes for workers laid off. The employers' five federations covering airlines, airports and civil aviation authorities are less willing to link state funding for redundancies directly to employment initiatives.
However, both sides are understood to support measures such as loan guarantees to underwrite redundancy packages, which is the Government's preferred option.
Whether the joint position adopted by the social partners in the civil aviation industry will be enough to sway Transport Commissioner Ms Loyola de Palacio from her non-interventionist "free skies" policy remains to be seen.
But the competition directorate and employment directorate will also be represented at the meeting and the latter is known to be concerned at the implications of present policy for jobs and social partnership in the EU.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has extended its low fare tariffs from November 30th to December 14th because of huge public response. According to Aer Lingus spokesman Mr Declan Conroy yesterday, 40,000 seats have been booked over the past two days, 10,000 of them on US routes.
He said the airline had also received lots of queries from people wishing to travel in December and had decided to extend the cheap fares offer as a result.
Return flights on all UK routes have been reduced to £59 (€75), return flights to Europe are £99 and people can travel by return to New York or Boston for £169, Chicago for £199 and Los Angeles for £249 return - including taxes. Bookings must still be made by October 18th to avail of the low fares.
The Aer Lingus unions are not expected to respond to the company survival plan, which requires a wage freeze and 2,500 redundancies, ahead of the meeting of EU's Council of Transport Ministers in Luxembourg next Tuesday.
IMPACT assistant general secretary Mr Michael Landers said that if fares' revenue picked up by even 10 per cent on forecasts for next year it would generate an extra £90 million, raising a question mark over the scale of redundancies sought. Financial advisers Mr Paul Sweeny and Farrell Grant Sparks, who are acting for IMPACT and SIPTU only began examining the company's books yesterday.
The company wants across the board job cuts while the unions are defending the principle of "last in, first out". Targeting older, senior staff in each section could yield higher payroll savings to the company. But Mr Landers said any attempt by Aer Lingus to depart from the traditional approach and sack workers selectively would be treated as "unfair dismissals".
Meanwhile, SIPTU national industrial secretary Mr Noel Dowling, who flew to Brussels yesterday for the social dialogue summit, said he would be seeking support from the EU social partners to change Commission policy on financial support for airlines. Earlier the Aer Lingus unions met Ms O'Rourke and told her it was vital that she "campaign vigorously against the Commission's flawed policy on financial supports for airlines".
Analysis: page 2; interview with Transport Commissioner, Ms Loyola de Palacio, page 5
