JUST when Aer Lingus was beginning to emerge from the financial crisis that almost bankrupted the national airline three years ago, it seems a plague of industrial disputes will push it back into crisis. Maria Kelly, general manager airline personnel, is the woman whose job it is to see the company pulls through.
"During the Cahill plan there was a recognition that we were facing bankruptcy. People were prepared to make hard decision," she says. "Now they see the company making profits and there's a natural tendency for them to want to catch up, even though the company is not in a position to meet their expectations."
As a result of the 1993 freeze and other derogations from national agreements, Aer Lingus's 6,000 employees have without increases under national pay agreements worth over 10 per cent. And it isn't just money. Staff left after the massive redundancies of recent years find they must also work harder.
With overall responsibility for working conditions, training and staff development in the airline, Ms Kelly knows the problems now erupting have more complex causes than pay. She seems to take it all in a calm and organised manner.
In a company where management styles have tended to be macho, with tables thumped and voices raised on occasion, trade unionists find it a welcome change even if they do not always like the message conveyed. "She's fairly good to deal with", says a trade union representative.
"She's a good hard negotiator. She knows her job. She won't mess you around. If she can sort something out she'll tell you and if she can't she'll tell you that as well."
Ms Kelly has been around Aer Lingus a long time. When she was growing up in Artane one of her ambitions was to join the company. After a good Leaving Cert at the Holy Faith convent in Dominic Street she had several job options and the offer of degree courses in Trinity and UCD.
"Aer Lingus was what I was interested in, I suppose. There was something special about it. A day out was going up to the airport."
She joined as a grade four clerk in reservations. It was 1974, the year after the marriage bar was lifted. She stayed, until 1985 when she had risen to grade two. During that time she was briefly a member of the union committee but was not very active.
While working she also; studied law part time and, on, qualifying, decided to take a career break and see how she fared as a barrister. She worked in the Chief State Solicitor's office and Ms Kelly says legal matters were always discussed at home. She would have considered becoming a barrister but discovered too late at school that she needed Latin for the law courses at Trinity and UCD.
She left Aer Lingus for a year initially and "devilled" for Mr Eamon de Valera. After that she took her chances in the Law Library and did a wide range of case work, including labour law.
"Law is at the heart of everything", she says. "If you go around the courts you'll see cases ranging from criminal law, to company law to matrimonial cases. Law is really at the centre of our social structures."
After a four year break, Ms Kelly had to decide if she wanted to return to Aer Lingus. She would have continued happily in legal practice if the opportunity of a promotion to staff relations specialist had not come up.
For the first time she found herself exchanging the formality of adversarial debate in the courts for a more informal but, not dissimilar role. "I was attracted to the job because it blended well with what I had been trained to do. I was used, to looking at both sides of the case."
Many trade unionists dislike the increasing role lawyers are playing in the industrial relations field, put Ms Kelly feels it is inevitable, given the mounting body of legislation, both domestic and EU. She has, no strong views on this development and believes each piece of legislation should be taken on its merits.
There is a need to protect the minimum rights and working standards of workers, but also to ensure legislation does not become so restrictive as to hamper the competitiveness and job creation potential of business.
On the vexed issue of binding arbitration, she says: "It's fine in one sense, if you have a properly resourced system and people have faith in it. But it could take time to build up the level of trust necessary.
There are also situations, like the Cahill plan, where she thinks people might prefer the freedom to adopt a more flexible approach to problems.
Since rejoining the airline, Ms Kelly has risen to take overall responsibility for personnel issues. Although a male preserve, she has found no difficulty operating as a woman. "First of all I worked in the legal field, which was male dominated and secondly attitudes have changed. I've been very lucky. I've been one of the beneficiaries of the change in attitudes towards women in the workplace."