MANAGEMENT AT aircraft engine maintenance company Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland (LTAI) is to meet today to consider its response to a decision by staff to reject proposals for work practice changes which it considers vital to the plant’s viability.
Unions said yesterday that workers at the plant at Rathcoole, Co Dublin had voted by a substantial majority against the proposals, which would have involved cuts in overtime rates and other changes.
However, unions said that workers were prepared to go to the Labour Court or another recognised third party to find a solution to the dispute.
Management said on Tuesday that a planned $40 million investment at the facility would not proceed if the flexibility and work practice reform proposals were not accepted by staff. It said that this would lead to the eventual winding down of the plant, which currently employs 465 staff.
The company did not comment yesterday on the union vote.
In a statement yesterday Ian McDonnell of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said: “Members have rejected the company proposals outlined at the Labour Relations Commission. As we indicated to them at the time, greater consideration needed to be shown for the likely impact the changes would have on workers’ earnings.”
“Under the company’s proposed changes, the shift premium would be reduced from 20 per cent of basic pay to 10 per cent. Workers would only be paid for half of the overtime worked each week and would have to ‘bank’ the rest. This could be paid for at the discretion of management in money or time off at a later date,” he said.
The company said on Tuesday its proposals did not involve any job losses or cuts in core pay. It said the proposed $40 million investment would secure the future of the plant for the next 15 years. It is understood that the engines maintained at the Irish plant will soon be obsolete.
The firm warned that the termination of the $40 million investment by its parent company would result in a new engine type going to another facility within the organisation, which would 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,” it said.