An Aer Lingus memo setting out "push factors" to help it achieve large-scale job cuts was never "embraced or approved" by senior management, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.
The airline's executive chairman, John Sharman, told the joint committee on transport that the memo was a "discussion paper" that had never been adopted as a strategy.
It had not been shown to the airline's board and he himself had seen it for the first time only last week, he said.
However, senior Siptu officials told the meeting that large elements of the document, and in particular the 12 "push factors" it contained, had been implemented.
A number of committee members also challenged Mr Sharman on his insistence that the 30-page document had never formed part of the airline's strategy to secure 1,300 voluntary redundancies.
Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton said it was clear that a lot of thought had been put into the memo and that it was not a "frivolous document".
Labour deputy Róisín Shortall said the document was "totally unacceptable" and had no place in modern industrial relations. She claimed many of its proposals were illegal under employment law.
Fianna Fáil TD Seán Power put it to Mr Sharman that, far from being a discussion document, the memo set out how the airline's business plan was to be executed.
Mr Sharman rejected this, pointing out that the figures in the memo did not tally with those in the business plan that was ultimately approved by the board.
The document, which was leaked last week, is headed "Business Plan - HR Strategy, July 2004". It includes a 12-point list under the heading "Environmental Push Factors", setting out factors which might cause staff to opt for voluntary redundancy.
These include a "change in uniform", a "tap on the shoulder" for superintendents and adverse changes in work patterns.
Its authors were not identified at yesterday's meeting as committee chairman John Ellis TD warned that parties not present were not to be named. The committee was not conducting a "witch hunt", he said.
Mr Sharman said the document had been collated by its human resources team and had been used to "help assess some key HR issues".
"It was therefore a discussion document. You will note that a number of points raised have never been carried forward, such as the specific details of the proposed severance package, which was changed in subsequent discussions."
However, Siptu national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny told the committee that the push factors had "most assuredly" been acted upon.
Mr Halpenny went through all 12 factors, claiming some were proposed by the company in talks and others actually implemented.
Superintendents, for example, had reported receiving the "tap on the shoulder", while a sample "canary yellow" polo shirt had been shown to staff affected by a proposed change in uniform.
Mr Sharman said the only change in uniform envisaged had involved a request to the supplier to see if savings could be made by changing the material.
He also denied that the "push factors" had been drawn up to try to force people to leave. Rather, they were a comment on the fact that some people might choose not to remain after the business plan was implemented.
For example, Aer Lingus was expanding its services and was now operating earlier in the morning and later at night. This necessitated a change in shift patterns, and "some people might not want to get up at 4am".
'Push factors'
"Environmental Push Factors" listed in Aer Lingus human resources document, July 2004:
1. "Tap on the shoulder" of all relevant superintendents.
2. Management of underperformance - performance improvement plans.
3. Attendance management.
4. Adverse changes in work/shift patterns.
5. Lack of availability of IWSL [in week special leave].
6. Working contracted hours.
7. Change in uniform.
8. Significantly reduced overtime.
9. Assignment to Resource Centre. [This is reference to a claim that pilots were to be transferred to a resource centre to perform menial tasks].
10. No transport.
11. Closure/reduction of bases.
12. HOB [head office building] relocation.