Aer Lingus claims cabin crew seeking 32 extra days off

MARTIN WALL, Industry Correspondent

Aer Lingus has claimed that revised rosters being sought by cabin crew at the airline would see them receive an additional 32 paid days off.

The airline strongly criticised a planned 24-hour strike by cabin crew which is scheduled to go ahead on Friday 30 May, the start of the June bank holiday weekend. It said the strike was "unjustified and unnecessary" and would cause maximum disruption to the travelling public.

Aer Lingus said that 28,000 people had been booked to travel on the day of the stoppage. It said it would normally expect to carry more than 40,000 passengers on the Friday of the June bank holiday weekend.

The airline rejected as “misleading” claims made by the trade union Impact, which represents the cabin crew, that existing rosters were unworkable.

It said these allegations were extremely misleading .

“Aer Lingus cabin crew enjoy very favourable conditions of employment in the airline sector, and this extends to the rosters they work. Aer Lingus cabin crew already have between 26 and 31 days annual leave, but the Impact union is seeking the equivalent of an additional 32 paid days off for cabin crew, which is clearly unacceptable.”

Impact has proposed that cabin crew should be rostered to work the same pattern and flights currently worked by the pilots.

It has said that at present cabin crew can work up to 60 hours in a seven day period, resulting in shift patterns of six working days and one rest day, followed by six more working days .

The union has proposed that for a trial period cabin crew would move to the same summer leave arrangements as for the pilots. It suggested annual leave would be rostered into this pattern and cabin crew would be entitled to two blocks of leave during the summer, in a similar arrangement to that applying for pilots.

The union has proposed that each of these blocks appear on the roster of 11 consecutive days free of duty.

Aer Lingus said the issues in dispute should be addressed through the normal negotiation process, which was already underway within the company.

It said the threat of strike action was “pre-emptive, unwarranted and an extremely unfair imposition on the travelling public, the tourism industry, exporters and business travellers”.

Declan Kearney, Director of Communications, Aer Lingus, said "This is another example in a series of strike threats by the Unions. Our customers need certainty for their travel arrangements. Without this they are forced to either travel with another airline or simply cancel their travel plans altogether. We are extremely disappointed that the Unions have once again raised the threat of strike, inflicting massive disruption on the travelling public. It's extremely damaging for customers and for the airline to live under this constant threat of strike. We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our customers, but we call on Impact to stop this unjustifiable practice of constantly threatening strike action as a part of their negotiating position. It is unfair to the airline, reputationally and commercially, and it is most unfair to the public who deserve to be able to catch their flights on the day and time of their choosing."

“Additionally, Aer Lingus has in recent weeks commenced discussions with all trade unions, aimed at establishing an internal mechanism for resolving disputes. Aer Lingus believes this mechanism is essential to put an end to the constant stream of strike threats aimed at disrupting customers in pursuit of Impact’s demands.”

The airline said that allegations by Impact representatives about unworkable rosters using extreme examples of 60 hour working weeks and 16 hour days were e extremely misleading and did not bear any resemblance to actual rosters at the company.

" A detailed analysis of actual Aer Lingus rosters over the last 12 months shows that the average working week for cabin crew was 30 hours, and that the incidence of staff working greater than 50 hours in a seven day period was less than 0.5 per cent. In relation to 16 hour days, our analysis shows that the longest planned working day in the roster is 13 hours, involving flying Dublin to San Francisco.

“Impact has also claimed that crew members are required to work six days on, one day off and six days on again, but this is simply not true. The roster analysis shows that on no occasion was a cabin crew member scheduled to work that pattern.”