Unskilled staff at Aer Lingus earning €110,000
Tuesday February 13 2007
It also reveals that some employees are earning 16 hours' pay for working only two hours.
SIPTU members at Aer Lingus have rejected changes proposed by the company and yesterday voted for industrial action "up to and including all-out strike".
Staff are being asked to accept new conditions which would mean fewer holiday days for some workers while others would receive less pay for overtime.
The new conditions were brought in on February 1 for new staff and will come into effect on March 1 for existing employees.
Aer Lingus is expected to introduce redundancies if the proposed changes are not implemented.
SIPTU's national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny said yesterday: "There is every possibility of a strike if this is not sorted out."
SIPTU represents about half of all Aer Lingus employees. Impact, whose membership includes Aer Lingus pilots, is continuing to negotiate with the company.
Shay Cody, the head of Impact, said yesterday: "The National Implementation Body has recommended that people should engage in talks and we believe that these issues could and should be sorted out in that context."
A study, commissioned by the company late last year, found that the airline was out of step with its competitors in a number of areas. The changes being brought in by the company are designed to bring the company practices into line with those of its competitors.
In a statement yesterday, SIPTU said: "The background to this proposal was a private survey commissioned by management, without the involvement or knowledge of the union, which purports to show that Aer Lingus workers are paid higher than 'comparator' airlines.
"In fact, despite an attempt to give the impression that the average cost per employee is €72,000 per annum, their own figures show that, for example, the average basic operative pay is €33,000 per annum - less than half of the alleged figure."
According to the company's document, however, existing work practices mean that some operatives at Dublin Airport are earning over three times this amount every year.
It also claims that employees currently move up the pay scales too quickly to the point where there are now more supervisors than people to be supervised in some areas of the business.
The report claims there is a problem with the number of sick days being taken by employees.
In some divisions of the company, an average Aer Lingus employee takes up to 20 days of sick leave per year.
Editorial: We need lift-off not touchdown
