Management will talk to TEAM staff, O'Rourke says

Team Aer Lingus management will go back to the workforce again and talk individually to employees about the proposed sale of the company to the Danish conglomerate FLS Aerospace, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told the Dail.

She had had a "constructive" meeting with the chairman and senior management in Aer Lingus and TEAM yesterday and would meet FLS management today.

In a subdued 45-minute debate on the decision by almost 60 per cent of workers to reject a £54.6 million buy-out of their letters of guarantee from Aer Lingus, before the sale of the company to FLS, the Minister said "FLS is the only company that made a firm offer" for TEAM.

Ms O'Rourke said both she and Aer Lingus management believed "TEAM Aer Lingus has no future as a wholly owned subsidiary of Aer Lingus". There was no point in recrimination, she said. Her concern was to maximise sustainable employment in TEAM. The company 's recent performance had been based on tight control of costs, including wage costs and a stable industrial relations environment.

"If either of these latter two conditions were not to hold particularly, in the current difficult climate surrounding the FLS proposals, then the prospects for TEAM's future viability in both the short and longer terms under Aer Lingus or any other ownership would be bleak indeed."

Mr Ivan Yates, Fine Gael's public enterprise spokesman, said the Minister's action not to actively support the proposed deal with FLS was unhelpful and undermined management's efforts.

Mr Yates called on the Minister to acknowledge her said the board had "no plan B". Ms O'Rourke said she was "politically responsible in Dail Eireann for all the companies in my remit".

She told Mr Yates she had just been in talks with the chairman of Aer Lingus and management of TEAM. "Their intention is to press ahead with talks with the workforce. They intend to spell out to the workforce individually what the situation is."

Ms O'Rourke confirmed that FLS has offered £25 million for the company and that the gap between that and the £54.6 million offer would be paid out of Aer Lingus's operating profit.

Deputies had pressed her to define her strategy for the future of TEAM Aer Lingus. Ms O'Rourke said she wanted to see a company that was "employable, productive and making a profit".

Opposition deputies laughed when the Minister denied the suggestion of Mr Trevor Sargent (Green Party, Dublin North) that she had taken a "hands off" approach to TEAM Aer Lingus compared to her attitude to Telecom Eireann.

She agreed with Mrs Nora Owen (FG, Dublin North) that it would mean utter devastation for the area if TEAM was to close and that should not happen.

Mr Eamon Gilmore DL, Dun Laoghaire) asked what the letters of guarantee given to TEAM workforce meant. The Minister said the letters were a clear guarantee of Aer Lingus employment and rights but she did not think anybody had a right to a job for life.

Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist, Dublin West) called on the Minister to call a halt to the "shameful rush" to privatise TEAM Aer Lingus. FLS was a company with less experience, financial losses and prone to redundancies. But Mrs O'Rourke replied she could not give any public company a guarantee that it would remain public.