Unions and management at Aer Lingus will today meet to discuss the company's proposal to shed 1,300 jobs as part of a plan to structure the airline as a low-cost carrier.
The plan was approved last evening by the board of the company but has been given a cool reception by unions. The unions and management will meet at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
While recognising that the company will need to cut staff to compete with Ryanair and Easyjet, both Impact and Siptu, the two biggest unions at the airline, questioned the scale of the proposed job-losses saying they will resist any attempt to enforce redundancies.
Last night they found an unlikely ally in the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, who also said compulsory redundancies were not desirable.
It is understood that some worker directors expressed concern about the plan at the board meeting yesterday, but the position of staff is complicated by their plan to assume a 15 per cent shareholding in the company in an employee share option scheme. Management have insisted they will not agree to the proposal unless a new restructuring is agreed.
An expressed interest in buying out the company by both pilots and management is raising concern that the restructuring is a precursor to privatisation.
Elements of the plan have been leaked to the press in recent days, but exact details did not emerge from yesterday's board meeting. The leaks suggest management want to cut the workforce by a quarter, outsourcing functions such as catering, cleaning and certain ground operations.
The Aer Lingus board issued a short statement after meeting, saying it had "approved a three-year business plan for the airline which details strategic, commercial and financial actions essential to ensure the continuing viability and growth of the business in the highly competitive, low-fares environment".