Tánaiste concerned at Aer Lingus cuts

THE TÁNAISTE and Minister for Enterprise and Employment is "disappointed" at the scale of the proposed cutbacks at Aer Lingus, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

Mary Coughlan has not spoken publicly on the airline's controversial plans to reduce its payroll numbers by about 1,500 either through outsourcing or redundancy.

The Irish Timesreported last month that Ms Coughlan had expressed concern about the company's plans at a meeting with Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion.

Meanwhile, the Department of Enterprise and Employment has said that new legislation governing transfer of undertakings and in relation to banning the use of agency workers for strike-breaking will be produced by the end of the year.

Both pieces of legislation, which could be relevant in the current Aer Lingus controversy, are promised under the proposed new national pay agreement.

The deal says that the legislation will be put in place by the end of the year.

However, the Department of Enterprise and Employment did not say yesterday when the Bills would be published.

Siptu, the largest union at Aer Lingus, is to begin a ballot next week of its 1,700 members for all-out industrial action in protest at the outsourcing plan.

It will also ballot members on the use of legislation on collective redundancies introduced by the Government in the wake of the Irish Ferries controversy.

The airline has said it will introduce its controversial €74 million cost-reduction programme unilaterally if there is no agreement on an alternative set of proposals which could generate a similar level of savings by the end of November.

The company and unions on Wednesday held their first meeting in a process chaired by Kevin Foley of the Labour Relations Commission. This is aimed at producing alternative cost-saving proposals.