CABIN CREW at Aer Lingus have voted to accept the draft agreement reached between their union and the airline at the Labour Relations Commission.
The Impact union released results of the ballot last night indicating 59 per cent had voted in favour, with 41 per cent having voted against.
The result comes days after the State's largest trade union, Siptu voted in favour of the proposals last Friday.
Impact had recommended the deal to its members on the basis that it would save the airline's Shannon base and retain Irish cabin crew on transatlantic routes.
The union also said the deal would "substantially reduce the number of proposed job cuts among cabin crew".
The cost to members would be increased productivity demands in light of the loss of 94 staff through voluntary redundancy, the deferral of pay increases under the Towards 2016 pay deal until July 2010, the deferral of pay increments for two years and new pay scales for new entrants.
Mandate has 1,500 cabin crew members at the airline.
The agreement, which was worked out between unions and Aer Lingus management in meetings last month, focused on a "leave and return" scheme under which employees would receive a severance package and then be able to subsequently reapply for positions at the company on inferior terms and conditions.
Staff were also offered the option of leaving the company permanently under an early retirement or voluntary redundancy programme.
Aer Lingus is seeking savings of about €50 million on its payroll costs as part of its new reform programme. It had originally planned to cut 420 cabin crew and replace almost all Irish-based long-haul crew with US-based staff.
