All 1,200 Aer Lingus cabin crew in the Republic of Ireland are to be sent notices of termination by the company later this month and offered new contracts on revised terms and conditions involving lower salary scales and changed work practices.
Later in the year, following the implementation of new work practices designed to reduce its requirement for the current staffing levels, the company will slim down its cabin crew workforce by about 230.
The personnel concerned are to be let go on a compulsory basis and offered statutory redundancy terms.
The move follows the rejection by cabin crew at the company of the terms of a controversial €97-million cost-saving deal which involved over 600 voluntary redundancies, pay cuts and work practice changes.
More than 440 Aer Lingus staff in other grades which accepted the terms of the cost-saving deal, are to leave under the voluntary redundancy scheme. They will receive six weeks pay per year of service.
The airline is also to abolish the grade of cabin manager in its aircraft as part of a de-layering of management structures. The 64 existing cabin managers will be offered contracts as general cabin crew personnel.
Details of the company's proposals for cabin crew were given to the trade union Impact this morning.
"Assuming the full implementation of all of the above measures, it is expected there will be approximately 230 less cabin crew in the organisation and all remaining cabin crew employees will be on new contracts of employment," the airline said in a statement.
The lower salary and revised working conditions set out by the company for cabin crew are generally in line with the terms set out in the deal rejected by the staff last week.
Impact has said it will consult members in Dublin, Cork and Shannon over the coming days.
Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller said yesterday the airline would respect the decision by four other groups at the airline – pilots, middle management, ground operations personnel and craft workers – to back the cost-saving programme which involved voluntary redundancies, pay cuts and work practice changes.
