The Board Of Aer Lingus meets today to be briefed on the restructuring plan for the company as the rift between management and unions over the process deepens.

SIPTU has threatened to take the company to the Labour Relations Commission following its decision to terminate the contracts of 93 workers on probation.

In letters to the staff members concerned, Aer Lingus said they had been recruited to serve in "an entirely different business environment". The airline said that, due to a change in its circumstances, it could not complete the probation period and was terminating the contracts.

"It is always deeply upsetting but these people have not yet been made permanent. In the context of the situation we are facing, it was inevitable that these people would not be made permanent," said an Aer Lingus spokesman.

But unions have reacted angrily to the company's decision. In a notice to its members, SIPTU branch secretary Mr Owen Reidy said: "These notices of dismissal from management are not acceptable as we have had no prior consultation or negotiation on any redundancies or related terms."

Mr Reidy said management's approach showed total contempt and disrespect for its employees and for the Minister For Public Enterprise Ms O'Rourke's position that the restructuring would be dealt with under a partnership concept. "it certainly has made what was already a difficult situation twice as difficult to deal with and it's rather unhelpful to say the least," said a SIPTU spokesman.

But Aer Lingus said its decision to terminate the contracts was part of the range of steps it had initiated since September 11th.

"In the company's view, this would be a continuation of the varied measures we have taken over the last four weeks from the release of temporary staff to the banning of capital expenditure, to the reduction of overtime, to the reduction of overhead spending. This is a range of ongoing, immediate, necessary steps before a full implementation of the complete plan," said the spokesman.

Meanwhile, IMPACT, which represents cabin crew at Aer Lingus, said it was close to an agreement which would allow cabin crew to take unpaid leave for between six months and a year. It said the negotiations could reduce job losses and help the company survive.

The row between SIPTU and Aer Lingus erupted as unions were preparing to meet with Ms O'Rourke yesterday for a briefing on her meeting with the EU Council Of Transport Ministers.

Earlier, the Minister said she would seek cabinet approval to grant Aer Lingus permission to raise a commercial loan backed by the government. Whatever is decided by the government will be subject to agreement with the European Commission.

"The Minister said she was taking this to the cabinet and we should assume the cabinet will agree in principle to underwrite the loans to the company. We should be ready to enter negotiations on that basis," said a spokesman for IMPACT following the meeting with unions.

"Again we stressed that the approach should be to try to minimise the job losses, secondly to try to get them on a voluntary basis and we also made the point that the unions need to be involved in the development and implementation of change because the last two weeks have been a frustrating process where we've been hearing more in the press than we've been hearing either from the company or the department."

Speaking earlier on RT╔'S Morning Ireland radio programme, Ms O'Rourke said Aer Lingus was approaching a "reckless trading" situation and that it faced closure unless all players moved "very quickly and very swiftly". "The situation is coming very close to that if we don't move quickly," the Minister said.