Aer Lingus has said that its 2,900 staff will receive letters later today in respect of a discussion document on how voluntary redundancies might be achieved at the airline.
The letter seeks to pour cold water on suggestions that senior management was prepared to engage in cynical practices to make working at the airline uncomfortable.
Aer Lingus this morning acknowledged the existence of a memo which outlined a number of factors designed to make life difficult for staff and encourage them to take voluntary redundancy. The airline was reacting to a story in this morning's Irish Independent which concerns a leaked document prepared by the airline.
But Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman said the document reported in the paper was not a plan and would never be a plan under his stewardship.
The confidential Aer Lingus paper comes from a provisional business strategy prepared by the airline for 2004. The strategy contains a list of what are called 'environmental push factors' - measures which could be used to encourage staff to avail of a voluntary redundancy programme.
The push factors listed range from changes to shift patterns which would be unsuitable to employees with families, to tedious training programmes for surplus pilots. The plan also suggested changing the cabin crew uniform in order to encourage cabin crew to leave.
This morning the Aer Lingus Chairman said today's letter would not contain an apology. IMPACT, the largest union at Aer Lingus and representing cabin crew, middle management and pilots, had called for such a measure.
IMPACT has claimed that attempts had been made to implement much of what was recommended under the 12 points listed in the document. It said that some of these measures were resisted to the point of the union going to the Labour Court, particularly in relation to the denial of in-week special leave.
The union said it would be seeking assurances that none of the recommendations would resurface as future proposals and it emphasised the urgent need to develop a new relationship of trust and confidence between management, staff and unions at the airline.
Acknowledging that the document as reported today would be viewed 'considerably adversely' by staff, the Aer Lingus Chairman said he would write to workers today to say that the paper quoted in the Irish Independent article was taken out of context and does not represent anything that happened in the company, nor his view of how it treated staff.
Mr Sharman said the document was one of a large bundle of documents prepared 14 or 15 months ago at the time the airline was considering its business plan. He said it was not a list of tactics, but a discussion of parts of the business plan which could have an implication for the voluntary severance scheme.
He particularly rejected any suggestion that Aer Lingus would try to make life difficult for shift workers with families, saying the reverse was true, and the airline would invest heavily in trying to improve work patterns for cabin crew and pilots.
* The Oireachtas Transport Committee is to sit next Tuesday to discuss the Aer Lingus memo. Fianna Fail TD Jim Glennon had asked that the committee be recalled.
