LCR23055

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Redundancy Terms for IAG Cargo Workers in Shannon Airport

BACKGROUND:

This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 1st October 2024 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.

 A Labour Court hearing took place on 16th October 2024.

REOMMENDATION:

This matter comes before the Court as a trade dispute between Aer Lingus and SIPTU in relation to the severance terms to be applied to 18 workers on the closure of the Cargo Base in Shannon.

The business has a history of redundancy situations arising over a period of many years as various changes in operations occurred. The parties, noting the variety of the terms applied in previous redundancy situations, are disagreed as to the appropriate terms to apply in the current situation.

The opportunity for re-deployment of the workers within the employment is limited and, in fact, only one such opportunity has emerged to date. In the view of the Court therefore, the redundancies which will arise as a result of the closure of the base are, effectively, compulsory in nature

The majority of the workers concerned were previously made redundant in 2009 and consequently hold service from that date only. Three workers have been recruited since 2009.

The Court has given very careful consideration to the written and oral submissions of the parties and in particular has given consideration to the various sets of terms which have applied in various redundancy situations over the years. The Court has also considered the fact that the redundancies will be compulsory, the general economic climate prevailing at this time and the likely availability of alternative employment.

In all of the circumstances the Court recommends that the following terms should apply to the workers affected by the redundancies due to occur at the end of November 2024 on the closure of the Shannon cargo base:

• Six weeks’ pay per completed year of service (inclusive of statutory redundancy entitlement) to a maximum of 104 weeks’ pay.
• In addition, noting the terms applied upon the closure of another unit of the business in 2019, a service bonus of €15,000 to be paid to those workers with 15 years of continuous service at the date of redundancy.
• The overall amount payable to be capped at €180,000

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
CC	______________________
24th October 2024	Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ceola Cronin, Court Secretary.