Aer Lingus Will Meet With Union Reps to Discuss Employee Cut Backs

Aer Lingus, Ireland’s widely popular budget airline, just announced Wednesday to their employees that it will be forced to implement cost cutting measures if agreements are not made regarding current proposals at the end of the month.

So far this year, Aer Lingus has managed to fend off hostile takeovers from Ryanair, their home-country rival. In order to avoid more financial crises, the airline is being forced to cut costs in attempts to reduce their annual operating totals which currently need to come down by EUR97 million euros. In order to do so, the airline will be cutting one-fifth of its current staff.

In response to the employee cutbacks, the UNITE and SIPTU unions, representatives for both the ground staff as well as the company’s technical workers, have outspokenly opposed the move, and so far the airline has agreed to meet with representatives of both unions before making any cuts.
Aer Lingus has said though that they will not rule out mandatory redundancies if all agreements have not been made with union representative to meet the budget cuts when talks close at the end of the month.

Aer Lingus confirmed that, although it would like to avoid compulsory redundancies, they cannot rule out taking that route if no other agreements are reached. The airline has been hemorrhaging money since the recession hit, and is now scrambling to cut back costs in order to remain afloat. The tourism industry including airlines, hotels, and ground travel have been hit hard during the economic downturn.