Siptu members at Aer Lingus have voted to accept a controversial €97 million restructuring deal at the airline.
The Siptu members, who include ground operations staff, head office personnel and some cabin crew, voted by 58 per cent to 42 per cent in favour of the deal, which was brokered at the Labour Relations Commission before Christmas.
However on Friday cabin crew at the airline, who are represented by Impact, voted decisively to reject the deal – leaving a serious question mark over around 1,100 jobs at the company. .
Aer Lingus management has signalled that it is working on a contingency plan involving more than 1,100 compulsory redundancies and a major scaling back of routes if staff rejected the restructuring proposals.
The proposals accepted by the Siptu members today include a three-year pay freeze, new work practice changes for some grades and pay cuts in some cases pay cuts.
Aer Lingus has said that it will not comment on the ballot results of staff until all are completed. Craft workers are to finalise their ballots tomorrow.