Aer Lingus has agreed redundancy terms for maintenance staff at Shannon as the airline moves to consolidate its maintenance operation in Dublin.
The package includes a €15,000 signing on bonus, an educational grant of €5,000 and an extra six months salary to reflect airline savings on redeployment costs.
The deal between management and unions was agreed at the Labour Relations Commission overnight, but is subject to a ballot of members.
The move will see maintenance staff numbers in Shannon fall from around 70 to just 13 over a period of 15 months as they will only be providing basic line maintenance at the mid-west airport.
Employees have been offered redeployment to Dublin, but it is expected a significant number will opt for redundancy.
Workers will receive four weeks pay per year of service plus statutory redundancy in line with its Greenfield cost reduction formula.
However, because the situation involves the closure of a facility, affected staff will receive some enhanced payments.
If they sign up for redundancy before 31 December, they will receive the "signing on" bonus.
They will also get six months of their salary to avoid the company having to incur redeployment costs.
The move to Dublin will involve a transition period of 15 months.
Aer Lingus and unions 'diametrically opposed'
Aer Lingus and its unions are "diametrically opposed" on cost offsetting measures to resolve a €750m pension deficit.
This is according to a report issued by Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey.
Mr Mulvey said the issues relating to future pension benefits and related matters remain to be presented to the Labour Court to be addressed in a final recommendation as part of ''a composite and definitive solution''.
Earlier this month, SIPTU called off a threatened strike on the issue following a joint intervention by ICTU and IBEC. Mr Mulvey's report is part of that initiative.
He outlines both areas where there is common ground and those where there is fundamental disagreement on addressing the scheme which covers staff at Aer Lingus, the Dublin Airport Authority and the now-defunct SR Technics.
In exchange for contributions to plug the deficit, Aer Lingus has insisted that staff must deliver cost -offsetting "stabilisation" measures.
The airline believes it cannot secure shareholder support for additional contributions without cost reduction measures.
However, unions have argued that issues involving the deficit were specific to the pension scheme and did not relate to other airline issues. Mr Mulvey described this as a "major and contentious issue".
In seeking to break the deadlock, Mr Mulvey said a possible starting point could be the adoption of what he calls a "neutral" position.
Aer Lingus would examine what funds it could make available without cost offsetting measures - and examine how to neutralise adverse impact on the lowest paid and longest serving staff members.
Mr Mulvey also queried whether additional incentives could be considered if the parties were to agree on cost offsetting measures - either by cash injections to the future defined contribution scheme, or by way of a new four-year agreement at Aer Lingus.
He also queried whether future profit share arrangements could contribute to a resolution.
However, he warned that he does not underestimate the difficulty of reaching agreement given the respective positions of both parties.
Mr Mulvey also noted that the fall in Irish sovereign bond yields has diminished potential pension benefits.
The Irish Aviation Superannuation Scheme shared by Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority has a deficit of around €750m.
Previous reports estimated that if the scheme were shut today without remedial moves, staff would only receive 4% of expected pension benefits.
Unions had sought pensions averaging 85% of final pay to compensate for loss of an anomaly whereby the State pension is paid on top of the company pension to those retiring early.
Aer Lingus said they had received the report and were giving it consideration. Separate negotiations have been continuing between the DAA and its unions.
The DAA said contact was continuing and it would be replying to a letter from unions shortly.
