TEAM Aer Lingus has moved to defuse threatened industrial action by its 1,500 workers by offering to bring forward deferred national pay agreements.
Members of one of the largest TEAM unions may ban overtime from next week because of delays in implementing the agreements.
The company has taken a tough stance on pay as part of its survival plan. The Labour Court has endorsed this. But TEAM made a much improved offer at talks in the Labour Relations Commission yesterday. It has appealed to the unions to ballot members on the new terms before taking industrial action.
Its employee relations manager, Mr Niall O Ceallaigh, says in the document outlining the new offer that it "represents the maximum additional payroll cost the company can sustain".
Under the extremely complex set of proposals, TEAM is offering to pay the third phase of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work in full from next January. It should have come in from last July and the company says it will include back money to make up the difference.
Meanwhile, the company will pay the last 1 per cent phase of the PCW "off the scale" from January 1997. This means the increase will not be consolidated in basic pay or attract fringe benefits, like pension increases. This phase will then be paid "on the scale" from January 1998 as well.
Partnership 2000, which comes into force for most public sector workers from next week, will be paid from July 1998, in other words, after a 12 month deferment.