THE OUTCOME of the ballot for industrial action by Aer Lingus cabin crew will be known next week.
Impact trade union members are voting in a row about how a €97 million cost-saving plan agreed in March will be implemented.
The union announced the ballot last week and voting is expected to be completed at 2pm next Monday, August 9th, with a result late that night or early on Tuesday.
Voting may, however, be extended for a further two days to allow ballot papers reach employees who have changed addresses.
Some 1,200 cabin crew are employed by the company and the dispute centres on “block” or flight time which begins when an aircraft starts to move from the terminal until it stops moving after landing.
Cabin crew voted twice on the issue earlier in the year.
Some 93 per cent agreed in the second ballot to the increase to 850 hours.
The union maintains, however, that the company unilaterally increased overall duty hours and changed employment terms.
Impact claims Aer Lingus abolished some 25-30 rules or protocols that were in place for health and safety reasons and that “only the legal minimum rules apply”.
An Aer Lingus spokesman said however that the majority of cabin crew were already working in excess of 850 hours.
“A small cadre are working significantly less” than that and would now have to work more hours. He insisted that “arbitration is ongoing”.
An Impact spokesman said the union did not expect any further intervention until at least after the result of the ballot.
The Aer Lingus spokesman reiterated the company’s statement last week that the airline is “absolutely prepared for every outcome”.
This is viewed as a repetition of the warning earlier this year that if the union voted for industrial action, the company would introduce compulsory redundancy for all 1,200 cabin crew members and re-employ the majority on lesser terms.
The Impact spokesman said that there was “always room to negotiate a solution, no matter how complex the issues”.
