Aer Lingus: Sinn Féin calls for Government to get management to peace talks

Leah Hearney (3) marched to Aer Lingus HQ this week with over 300 cabin crew staff and pilots to tell the company CEO Christoph Mueller that they are ready, willing and able to work. Photo Credit: Conor Healy

THE Government should intervene to get Aer Lingus management to enter talks to end the dispute over imposed rosters and working arrangements, Sinn Féin has said.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Workers’ Rights Martin Ferris TD said:

Members of the workforce have in effect been locked out and many people have suffered severe inconvenience due to flight cancellations.

This situation is of the company’s making.

The cabin crew have already agreed to a pay cut, a reduction in holidays and other cost-cutting measures.

The changes which Aer Lingus are attempting to impose were not part of the agreement. Therefore the company should be compelled to enter into talks with the workers representatives and submit to arbitration through the Labour Court.

Meanwhile, the IMPACT trade union yesterday called on Aer Lingus management to come clean about how much it is spending on unnecessarily hiring aircraft and crews while it sends willing cabin crew home and leaves its own expensive assets lying idle.

The union estimated that the cost could currently be running at over €400,000 a day – but said it could be much more if aircraft and crews were hired for transatlantic flights.

The union also said Aer Lingus had now hired outside staff to conduct disciplinary hearings against cabin crew, adding to the cost of the dispute.

With the row entering its second week, IMPACT said stakeholders - including staff, customers and shareholders - had a right to know how much money was being wasted, particularly when huge effort and sacrifice had been made to keep the airline afloat, including pay cuts and job losses.

The union said mounting costs included:-

The cost of hiring aircraft and crews, which the union estimates could be in the region of €40,000 for a European round trip and over €250,000 for a transatlantic round trip. The union believes at least ten aircraft per day are currently being hired.

The cost of refunds to passengers whose flights were cancelled when management sent willing staff home last week.

The opportunity cost of idle Aer Lingus planes, which are expensive capital assets.

The cost of hiring outside staff to conduct disciplinary hearings against cabin crew.

The salary costs of pilots left idle because hired planes come fully crewed.

The cost of running newspaper advertisements.

An IMPACT spokesperson said staff and shareholders were paying a huge price for management’s misguided actions.

By any standards, the cost of management’s actions are completely disproportionate to the issues that remain in dispute – just 20 flying hours a year, or less than half an hour a week.

We are challenging management to come clean and release verified figures on how much money it is wasting and the extent to which this will damage the bottom line when the next quarterly and annual figures are published.

The union repeated that cabin crew have been reporting for work but had been sent home by the company, causing flight disruption this week. Now, after cabin crew and other airline staff have worked so hard, and sacrificed so much, to make the airline a success in difficult times, the company is also wasting scarce resources to hire-in planes and crew when their own cabin crew are reporting for duty every day and expensive Air Lingus aircraft remain on the tarmac.