A threat of disruption to Aer Lingus flights this weekend was lifted yesterday after talks were arranged between SIPTU and the airline's chief executive, Mr Willie Walsh.
In a letter to the union, Mr Walsh said he was prepared to cancel appointments in order to meet its representatives at 8 a.m. today.
SIPTU accepted the invitation and immediately called off general meetings it had arranged for tomorrow at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, which would have caused flights to be delayed.
The union is seeking to enter detailed discussions on the airline's restructuring plan, which includes cutting 1,325 jobs, about a third of the total, across most areas of the company.
It said its priority at this morning's talks would be to secure a lifting of the September 14th deadline for receipt of redundancy applications.
Mr Walsh had told SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Michael Halpenny, on Wednesday that the earliest he could meet a full union delegation was next Monday.
However, in a letter to Mr Halpenny yesterday, he said he was unaware at the time of the union's plan to hold disruptive general meetings at the three airports tomorrow.
"You made no reference to this during our telephone conversations," he said. "As previously advised, we remain available to meet you today \ or tomorrow. If you believe that my attendance is essential I am prepared to cancel my appointments tomorrow morning to meet with you at 8 a.m.
"This removes your stated requirement for a meeting of your members on Saturday and also removes any threat to our operations and our customers," the letter concluded.
Mr Halpenny issued a statement shortly afterwards confirming that the talks would go ahead and that tomorrow's meetings had been cancelled.
"We hope that, notwithstanding the major difficulties we face, these talks will be positive in tone," he said.
Lifting the September 14th deadline, he added, would allow space for "proper negotiations on the major issues". These included the proposed job cuts, as well as the company's plan to outsource some services.
The company is offering nine weeks' pay per year of service as part of a redundancy package likely to cost about €80 million.
SIPTU, however, claims the package is deficient in a number of respects, including the fact that a limit of 15 years of service is to be applied.
This and other restrictions make the terms less attractive than they might first appear, in particular for employees with long service, it says.
Union sources claim staff interest in the package has been negligible to date, but this was denied yesterday by a company spokeswoman. "It is a very attractive package and there is a great deal of interest in it," she said.
SIPTU yesterday repeated a call for the National Implementation Body to intervene over what it claimed was the airline's refusal to abide by "normal procedures and good industrial relations practice".
It accused Mr Walsh of adopting a "gun-to-the-head" approach to industrial relations, which it said would prove counterproductive. The NIB, which comprises high-level Government, employer and union representatives, meets to investigate alleged breaches of the Sustaining Progress partnership agreement.
It is unlikely to intervene in the Aer Lingus situation as long as talks between management and unions continue.
Labour's transport spokeswoman, Ms Róisín Shortall, yesterday called on the Minster for Transport, Mr Brennan, to "get off the fence" and make a statement about recent developments at Aer Lingus.
She said Mr Brennan should indicate the Government's approach to the company's "apparent shift away from the broader national strategic interest towards becoming another Ryanair-type airline".
