Aer Lingus has renewed its threat to impose compulsory redundancy on pilots who do not volunteer for a severance package.

The State airline wrote to the IMPACT trade union on Thursday seeking a meeting in January to discuss the failure of pilots to sign up for the voluntary programme. IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Mr Michael Landers, said pilots would vote on industrial action if any attempt was made to impose compulsory severances.

The stance by the highest paid group of workers in the State airline represents a significant hurdle for management at Aer Lingus.

The company is seeking 2,026 redundancies as it attempts to address serious losses forecast in a trading slump which has followed the attacks on the US in September.

On the plus side, a vote of middle managers, cabin crew and pilots affiliated to IMPACT yesterday accepted work practice changes proposed by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

The package included the suspension of increments and pay rises under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF). One day's leave was also cancelled.

The vote follows acceptance of the LRC plan on Thursday by operatives, cabin crew and catering staff affiliated to SIPTU.

While IMPACT workers agreed to expand the Employee Share Option Programme (ESOP) at the airline to 14.9 per cent of its stock from 5 per cent, that element of the recovery plan will be put to a separate vote of SIPTU workers in the new year.

SIPTU is unhappy that the ESOP provisions cancel retrospective pay rises under the PPF, which were foregone as part of the rescue deal.

When combined with the threat of compulsory redundancies to pilots, this means that both IMPACT and SIPTU can still veto the recovery plan.

IMPACT said 81 per cent of the 420 pilots who voted accepted the deal. The turnout of pilots was 78 per cent, but the result was conditional on the airline imposing no compulsory redundancies.

Mr Landers claimed the airline had not made a genuine offer to the pilots, and said the early retirement and voluntary severance packages were not realistic.

Other workers at the airline could receive two years' salary as under the retirement package, he said. But the sum available to pilots was limited to £50,000. A pilot could earn up to £180,000 in two years, he said.

In addition, Mr Landers was unhappy with a cap on payments available under the voluntary severance package.

Some 531 pilots work for Aer Lingus and the company argues this is too many. It wants 90 redundancies, but only five pilots have indicated willingness to leave on the terms available.

The airline also plans to make 44 cadet pilots redundant, in addition to 24 senior captains on fixed-term contracts and 12 pilots on unpaid special leave.

Some 87 per cent of 919 IMPACT cabin crew accepted the package on a 63 per cent turnout. Of 420 middle managers polled, 98 per cent accepted the package. The turnout was 88 per cent.