Aer Arann Express is to make almost one-third of its pilots redundant, just seven months after it was awarded a £32 million contract by the Government for five regional routes.
Eleven permanent and three contract pilots have been served redundancy notice. All of them are pilots on the Shorts 360 aircraft. The company intends to change its fleet on the regional routes to larger ATR 42 aircraft, and had introduced a retraining programme for the officers.
However, 14 pilots who had not yet been trained but were part of the programme, were told a week ago that they were to lose their jobs.
IMPACT, which represents Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) members, has received no response to its request to the company to hold urgent talks. A spokesman for the union told The Irish Times that the company would be leaving itself open to unfair dismissals actions if it tried to shed the staff in this way.
The chief executive of Aer Arann, Mr Padraig O Ceidigh, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday she was aware of the move.
However, a spokeswoman for the Minister said the operation of Aer Arann was a matter for the company, and the Minister's responsibility lay in ensuring that an appropriate service was provided on the six public service obligation (PSO) routes.
The spokeswoman denied the Minister had played any part in requesting that larger aircraft be introduced on the routes. Last March, there were complaints about scheduling at a meeting of Sligo County Council's transportation policy committee.
The 14 pilots, who have been flying the Shorts 360 36-seater aircraft, were informed verbally by Aer Arann Express management on August 16th last, and formal notices were issued late last week. The notices state the company is phasing out the Shorts 360 aircraft, and makes no reference to retraining.
The pilots were informed they could re-apply for ATR 42 jobs when they become available, but this would be subject to open competition and they would be given no preference over non-staff.
IMPACT says that the company will be in breach of the Protection of Employment Act if it does not initiate talks with the union by the end of this week - which is 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect.
Five of the six PSO routes, worth £32 million over three years, were awarded to the firm last December. The airline now serves Knock, Kerry, Galway, Sligo and Carrickfin in Co Donegal, in addition to its routes to and from Britain.
