Aer Lingus management has insisted that negative tactics were not used to encourage staff to take voluntary redundancy last year.
The company wrote to staff today defending its position in relation to the restructuring process, after a leaked document appeared to show it considered making life difficult in the hope workers would leave the company.
Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman said an article in this morning's Irish Independent"is something taken out of context and does not represent anything that happened in the company, nor does it represent my view of how we treat our staff."
The report details suggestions that may have encourage staff to leave, dubbed "environmental push factors".
They included:
- 'Tap on the shoulder' of all relevant superintendents, where some 200 supervisors would be approached by management and told they had no future with the company.
- Adverse changes in work and shift patterns
- Weeks spent on training modules for surplus pilots
- A change in the company's uniform.
The document said "push factors" were "key to driving applications" for the voluntary severance scheme.
But, speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Sharman said the plan was a "discussion document designed to bring comment internally within the management at the time to whether or not a voluntary severance scheme would be successful."
"It was very much a discussion document", he said. "I do not believe this document could be described as a tactic."
He said no "negative tactics" were employed to encourage staff to leave the company "not to best of my knowledge or belief and certainly not at my instruction.
"I was on the board at the time and have been chairman since July last year and at no stage would such tactics have been authorised by me."
He said the document was one of a number of documents put together in the Spring of 2004. "People are asked to look at extremities," he added. "This piece of paper...is one small part of what would be hundreds of pieces of paper relating to the business plan, the vast majority of which were discarded."
Siptu national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny said the union would be seeking clarification from the company.
"There is a clear duty on the chairman of the company to clarify the situation and we from the point of view of the union will be seeking a clarification from the company," he said.
"Either the company are dealing on an upfront way with us on a voluntary redundancy solution or not. But a simple apology won't be half enough".
IMPACT, which represents cabin crew, pilots and other staff in the company, said: "It was extraordinary that this unnecessarily hostile approach was taken at a time when Aer Lingus was making record profits, and when staff had saved the company from bankruptcy by increasing productivity by up to 33 per cent."
IMPACT official Christina Carney said: "But the current Aer Lingus chairperson has told us that he wants a good relationship with staff.
"An apology would be nice, but it's more important that the company works to rebuild a positive working environment where this won't happen again, she added.
Labour Party spokeswoman on transport Roisin Shortall said: "It is now clear that Aer Lingus management deliberately fostered a climate of fear and uncertainty about the company's future work practices in order to coerce its staff into accepting voluntary redundancy.
Ms Shortall said: "This whole incident bears out how in many large companies terms of employment have now become a race to the bottom, with little job security, rights, or pensions available to staff.
