Fianna Fail TD Darragh O'Brien has warned Aer Lingus that it was treating its staff badly and risked damaging its reputation unless it reinstates the staff removed from the company's payroll earlier in the week.
O’Brien said he regarded staff to have been “completely flexible over last number of years”, and that the “sacrifices and concessions that they have made have contributed greatly to turning around the fortunes of the airline”. He stated that the terms Aer Lingus was demanded was outside of the Greenfield plan agreed between staff and management last year.
The airline cancelled 14 flights yesterday and stated it anticipated further cancellations affecting up to 10% of its schedule over the coming days. The union Impact which represents the cabin crew, has stated that the blame for the cancellations of flights liews squarely with airline management.
Union spokesperson Bernard Harbor said: “The company has put over 170 cabin crew off duty even though they have reported for duty and are willing to work. It has its own expensive planes on the tarmac while it spends €400,000 a day hiring external aircraft and crews.