THE AIRCRAFT engine main-tenance company Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland (LTAI) has warned that its plant at Rathcoole, Co Dublin could face closure if staff reject new proposals for greater flexibility and work practice changes in a ballot today.
The company said yesterday that a planned $40 million investment at the facility would not proceed if the management proposals were not approved by union members. About 465 people are currently employed at the aircraft engine overhaul plant.
The company said that its flexibility proposals did not involve any job losses or pay cuts. But unions said that management was seeking staff to work longer hours and to reduce shift premium rates.
It is understood that the engines currently maintained at the Irish plant will soon be obsolete.
LTAI said that if the investment in the plant were to go ahead it would secure its future for the next 15 years.
“The termination of the $40 million investment by LTAI’s parent company will result in a new engine type going to another facility within the organisation, and will inevitably lead to notice of layoffs and short-week working by the end of this week. This in turn will lead to the eventual wind-down of the facility, and the consequent loss of jobs there.”
The company’s comments were strongly criticised by unions. The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) accused it of “threatening behaviour” while Siptu said it seemed to confuse bully-boy tactics with negotiation.
TEEU official Ian McDonnell said: “This is not the first time LTAI has used the threat of closure and short-time working to try and drive down pay and conditions. While they threaten to transfer the work to Germany, the reality is that pay and conditions are better there, with a shorter working week, longer holidays and flight concessions.
“Their proposals represent a cut of 50 per cent in shift premiums and management has given no written commitment that work on the new V2500 project will come to Ireland if our members accept the changes. There is no assurance available either that short-time working and lay-offs will not take place if workers accept the changes.”
Siptu branch official Teresa Hannick said at the Labour Relations Commission the company had improved its proposals slightly, but that it had lost the opportunity to agree a strategy the unions could endorse as well.