Unions at Aer Lingus have called on the airline to push back the deadline for staff to signal their acceptance of the redundancy package.

In talks with management yesterday, the two largest unions, SIPTU and Impact, asked for the September 14th deadline to be extended, possibly by as much as a month. The airline is seeking 1,325 redundancies by offering a package likely to cost in excess of €80 million.

However, the airline's chief executive, Mr Willie Walsh, has refused to be drawn at this stage on whether the deadline will be extended. When announcing the redundancy package a fortnight ago, he said it was important the whole process did not drag on for weeks. Staff are guaranteed a minimum payment of €40,000 under the redundancy offer.

Some union representatives told Mr Walsh a fairer deadline would be the middle of October. They argued this would allow an open-ended talks process on the redundancy package to take place.

However, some union representatives are more anxious to make progress on the issue of terms and conditions for those workers remaining in the airline at this stage.

SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Michael Halpenny, said the talks would resume today. In a brief statement he said: "The parties met again today for discussions in an attempt to agree a structure and framework for substantive talks.

"Following this afternoon's discussions, management asked for further time to reflect on the issues before us and we have agreed. We are resuming tomorrow [Tuesday] at 10 a.m."