This article is from page 17 of the 2006-04-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
UNIONS and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have been given until June 6 by the Labour Court, to complete talks on the €30 million “survival plan” for Shannon Airport.
The DAA and SIPTU both confirmed to The Clare People that they accepted the Labour Court’s recommendation and that informal contacts were been made with the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) to recommence talks.
Talks on the restructuring at Shannon have been going on since last Summer. The Labour Court has given the two sides two months in which to resolve the outstanding issues and has stated that the parties should this time engage “genuinely and meaningfully”.
The court said that the sides’ failure to enter meaningful engagement, as recommended by the National Implementation Body last December, “reflects no credit on the parties”.
Opting against to the DAA request that SIPTU ballot its members on the “survival plan”, the court stated that as the sides had not entered meaningful talks, “the main criterion for referral of the issues to the Court has not been fulfilled properly”.
The DAA’s plan for Shannon is seeking to cut the workforce of 520 by 200 through voluntary redundancies and contracting out of work at a number of areas at the airport.
To date, SIPTU has refused to enter talks on any proposed outsourcing, expressing concern over a “race to the bottom”.
The union argues that discussions can only take place on the basis of maintaining terms and conditions of employment on a direct labour basis.
However, in its recommendation, the Labour Court stated that the “full and meaningful” engagement “obligates the parties to fully engage on proposals on outsourcing and any other alternative means of operational cost saving or efficiency” at Shannon.
The court ruled that it was not for it to decide as to whether or not outsourcing should take place “in the absence of agreement in principle between the parties”.
Its recommendation also revealed that the DAA made a set of proposals at the hearing on March 24, “adding a lump sum payment for those remaining in employment”.
The Labour Court said that if there are any unresolved industrial relations issues, they could be referred back to the court for recommendation.