Aer Lingus faces questions on memo

Members of an Oireachtas committee will today attempt to establish the precise purpose of a controversial Aer Lingus memo which looked at how the airline could achieve more than a thousand job cuts.

The authors of the leaked document are unlikely to be named, however, when management and union representatives at the airline address the joint committee on transport.

It is understood that those addressing the meeting will be warned that they do not have legal privilege should they choose to name parties not present at the meeting.

Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman is breaking off from his summer holidays to address the committee.

He will be asked to explain the context of the July 2004 memo which included a list of "environmental push factors" apparently designed to encourage staff to take voluntary redundancy.

The 12-point list included a suggestion that relevant superintendents would be given a "tap on the shoulder", as well as the implementation of "adverse changes" in work patterns.

Mr Sharman may also be asked to address allegations that senior managers discussed the creation of "tacky" jumpsuit and T-shirt uniforms for staff.

A Siptu delegation, led by national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny, will address the meeting prior to Mr Sharman and his management team.

The committee chairman, Fianna Fáil TD John Ellis, said yesterday it would be a matter for the committee members to decide what issues to raise with the two parties.

It is understood, however, that speculation about whether the authors of the leaked document will be named at the meeting is wide of the mark.

Instead, committee members are expected to focus on establishing the context in which the memo was drawn up and whether it had the formal approval of senior management.

They will also enquire as to whether it was ever the intention of management to implement the document.

The Siptu representatives will tell the committee that aspects of the plan were in fact implemented.

In a letter to Aer Lingus staff last week, Mr Sharman said the document was "a tool used by senior executives at a particular point in time" in 2004, but had had no function since.

It had "in no way constituted a tactic or plan", he claimed. Mr Halpenny said last week, however, that the plan was "there in black and white".

Mr Willie Walsh, who was chief executive of Aer Lingus at the time the memo was prepared, is now chief executive-designate of British Airways.