Aer Lingus pull out of talks with SIPTU

Aer Lingus would appear to be on a collision course with union SIPTU after it withdrew today from talks at the Labour Raltions Commission and said that it was would push ahead with it's decision to outsource jobs at the three State airports.

The airline pulled out of the talks after it said that the union had 'failed to engage in any meaningful way' to provide alternatives to it's outsourcing plan. The talks had been set up by the LRC four weeks ago to explore alternatives to the airlines proposal to outsource 1,250 jobs at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.

The decision to withdraw from the talks has angered SIPTU who had attempted to secure the terms of redundancy for the Aer Lingus workers before embarking on discussions to explore alternatives. The failure to agree on such terms was the trigger for Aer Lingus to leave the negotiating table.

The airline had offered employees the option of transferring to the outsourcing company or taking redundancy at nine weeks pay per year of service and capped at 130 weeks. SIPTU had been attempting to raise the terms to ten weeks per year of service with no cap.

Aer Lingus have now decided to proceed with the selection of an outsource provider by the end of next week. Meanwhile, SIPTU are awaiting the outcome of the ballot for strike action at the airline. The ballot closes on November 7. 

A winter of discontent lies ahead with the possibility of strike action once again looming over the heads of Aer Lingus passengers.