Aer Lingus cabin crews are to receive £400,000 in back money because of an accounting error in calculating shift premiums. The arrears will be paid to 1,100 out of the 1,650 personnel within the cabin crew cohort, and the amounts vary from a few pounds to £650.
The error was spotted by a SIPTU member of the cabin crew and the announcement of the payments has been made, along with a number of other concessions, as part of a campaign to win back members from IMPACT.
Both unions dispute the number of cabin crew who have switched sides and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is expected to make a decision on September 12th on whether the transfer falls within congress rules.
Aer Lingus is expected to make a decision on whether to recognise IMPACT the next day. SIPTU's Dublin regional secretary, Mr Brendan Hayes, has made it clear that the union intends defending its current exclusive right to represent cabin crew.
SIPTU worker director Ms Joan Loughnane says a new interim committee established in May, after the former committee decided to switch unions, had won important concessions, including 40 promotional posts and better working conditions on long-haul routes.
Details of the concessions have been circularised to all cabin crew. SIPTU acting branch secretary Mr Morgan Nolan said the previous committee had made no progress on these issues over the previous two years and had sought a solution to its problems by blaming SIPTU officials and changing unions.
He predicted they would face the same problems negotiating better pay and pensions in IMPACT as they had in SIPTU.
Former cabin crew chairwoman Ms Nora O'Reilly, who led the campaign to switch unions, said yesterday that all the concessions secured by SIPTU had "been in the pipeline" for some time.
She described the publicity drive by SIPTU to win back members as "the last sting of the dying wasp". Only one person out of 1,400 had decided to transfer back to SIPTU after joining IMPACT.
She added that IMPACT members would ballot for industrial action in pursuit of improved pay and pensions from September 13th. If Aer Lingus decides not to recognise IMPACT the issue of union recognition would be added to the ballot paper.