Fresh doubts were cast tonight on a deal between workers and management at Aer Lingus which was expected to pave the way for the airline's privatisation next month.
The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU) said airline appeared to be setting pre-conditions to yesterday's Labour Court recommendation, which would see staff getting a 4 per cent wage rise over and above the national pay agreement.
Michael Halpenny, SIPTU's national industrial secretary, said the union could not ballot its members on the court ruling until it got clarification from Aer Lingus on its position.
A spokeswoman for the airline said tonight: "We are continuing to consider the recommendations."
The main element of the new deal is a 4 per cent pay rise on top of the 10 per cent already settled in the national wage agreement recently. If implemented, staff would see a 3.5 per cent increase in wages from September 1st and another 0.5 per cent rise from April 1st next year.
The deal also provides for significant improvements in long service increments and death-in-service benefit.
Almost 600 workers on fixed-term contracts would be made permanent, with an assurance that 85 per cent of all ground staff were permanent. Any future redundancies would be on a voluntary basis.
Christy McQuillan, SIPTU branch organiser, said the new ratio of permanent ground staff to fixed-term contract staff was a major improvement and lifted the spectre of casualisation and out-sourcing.
"It also shows that SIPTU was right when it opposed the restructuring plan of the former chief executive, Willie Walsh, who pushed through 700 redundancies at a cost of €100 million to the airline," he said.
SIPTU, the largest union in Aer Lingus, remains opposed to the privatisation plans but is seeking to address job security issues in the event of it going ahead.