Renewed industrial unrest is looming at Aer Lingus. SIPTU wants to claw back cost savings, and the 530 pilots are expected to accept a redundancy package - but reject new work practices associated with it - in a ballot which began last night.
SIPTU, which represents almost 3,000 clerical and ground handling staff, feels its members have been expected to accept an inequitable share of cutbacks so far under the survival plan brokered by the Labour Relations Commission last November.
Among the savings it wants reversed are the 15 months freeze on incremental pay increases, a reduction of premium overtime rates from double time to time-and-three-quarters and the return of a holiday leave day. It told the company's chief executive, Mr Willie Walsh, on Friday that it will not co-operate with productivity measures which have been agreed but not yet implemented.
SIPTU's branch secretary, Mr Owen Reidy, said yesterday that delays in negotiating cutbacks for pilots have caused unrest among other workers. "Our grievance is not with the pilots but the company over the way it has handled the survival plan," he said.
The new plan for pilots has two components. One, drawn up by Mr Phil Flynn, former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, deals with redundancy issues and special leave for pilots who are surplus to company requirements.
Under this, pilots opting for early retirement can go at 52 and secure packages worth up to €240,000 each. The company had originally put a cap of €60,000 on the lump sum and fixed early retirement at 55.
About 27 pilots are expected to accept the offer, another 32 have taken unpaid leave and eight have left for other reasons. This brings the total to within 13 of the target of 86 jobs in the survival plan. More than 1,700 employees have been made redundant.
The other proposal, drawn up by Mr Jack Russell have proven more contentious. The assistant general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Michael Landers, said the measures, such as the exposure of pilots to unlimited 6 a.m. starts, violate existing collective agreements and "bring working conditions down to the bare minimum limits allowed by the International Aviation Authority or below them".
Pilots will vote separately on the two sets of proposals. A result is expected on May 15th.