FEARS OVER the future of aircraft engine maintenance company Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland (LTAI) have eased after the company announced that it would attend a Labour Court hearing, expected to be scheduled for next week.
The move was immediately welcomed by workers at the company and their unions, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) and Siptu.
About 470 people work at the facility at Rathcoole, Co Dublin.
The decision by the company yesterday came after an emergency board meeting yesterday morning and telephone contact with its parent company, Lufthansa in Hamburg, Germany.
In a statement afterwards, LTAI said it was “respectful of all agreed labour relations procedures and is accepting the invitation from the Labour Court.”
LTAI said that it was optimistic that a solution would allow the introduction of a new engine, “and safeguard the future of 465 jobs at the plant.”
The company emphasised the “absolutely time-critical nature of achieving a final resolution.”
The move follows Wednesday’s rejection of a management deadline for agreement on a range of “labour flexibility measures” by a trade union group at the company.
TEEU official Ian McDonnell said the court hearing “will give us an opportunity to have members’ concerns properly addressed without the distraction of a threat of imminent closure hanging over our heads.
“While we appreciate the need to maintain competitiveness, we are also concerned to avoid a race to the bottom.”
Mr McDonnell said there were “about three issues” which the company wanted to discuss in introducing change, but the workers wanted up to 15 issues addressed.
“German employees enjoy higher pay rates, a shorter working week and various concessions that are denied to Irish employees. We want to ensure the gap is not widened further under the guise of seeking essential economies.”
Acceptance by the company of the invitation to talks “was what we wanted. The company, as well as the unions, is bound to follow the procedures laid out in our house agreements to seek assistance of an independent third party before taking drastic steps such as mass lay-offs,” Mr McDonnell said.
Siptu branch organiser Tersea Hannick said: “Hopefully, the company realises that its attempt to pressurise employees into accepting its terms by imposing a deadline this week, or face plant closure, was counter-productive.”
Yesterday, the court could not give an exact date for when the talks would take place.
