Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending. My questions will be directed more towards the representatives from Aer Lingus if they do not mind. Cabin crew at Aer Lingus have been raising serious concerns. Their original fortnightly pay was reduced by 50% on 30 March. As of July, their level of pay has been reduced even though they are working. They were misinformed that the company would pay 30% of their salaries and that the Government would give them a top-up of €700 fortnightly. They assumed that they would be getting more than €350 per week but that is not the case. Going by their payslips, those crew members are only getting a Covid-19 payment.

Some crew members have filled out the UP1 and UP14 social welfare forms to claim reduced work benefits. They were told by Citizens Information and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection that they are entitled to claim. However, the human resources department in Aer Lingus is refusing to sign the forms. The crew members are not allowed to self-declare so if the company refuses to sign, they do not get any added benefits from social welfare in order to claim their stamps. I have a couple of questions to ask about that and I would like this issue to be specifically addressed. These staff members are definitely entitled to supports according to Citizens Information and the Department. The process in question is the famous X and O options on social welfare applications. If someone is to work five days a week but is only provided with three days' work, he or she is entitled to two days off if the company will mark the appropriate X or O. I have done it as an employer. Why will Aer Lingus stamp those forms? I would appreciate an answer to that simple question. What is being done to save the jobs of the cabin crew? What can be done? Aer Lingus and Fórsa have informed staff that they are in talks and that 230 crew members will be made redundant in the coming months. Nobody knows whether it will be based on voluntary redundancy or not. If not, it will be mostly junior crew who will be made redundant without a redundancy package. In May, Aer Lingus made redundant anyone who joined the company in 2019. There was no press coverage of that at all.

Members of Aer Lingus staff have told me that they have been flying in America and overnighting in Europe throughout this time and, while managers have been kind and helpful, those members of staff are worried and feel that they have been let down after all their hard work. It is horrendous that they may potentially lose their jobs. Those people have little or no money on which to live after their rent has been paid. They are members of Fórsa but feel that the union is not doing much to stick up for them.

Aer Lingus will begin new working conditions in the coming months which will mean more work for less pay, according to some crew members. What plans has Aer Lingus to look after its staff who worked through the pandemic and should be considered front-line staff?