Mr. Paddy Kavanagh:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to raise our members' concerns today. Connect Trade Union is the largest engineering union in the Republic of Ireland for just under 40,000 workers and is affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In the transport sector, we represent approximately 3,000 workers across rail, shipping, air and road transport with 50% of those being electrical trades, mechanical trades and engineering workers in the aviation sector primarily in aircraft maintenance, aerospace component production and facilities maintenance and so on. Connect Trade Union also represents all electrical trades, civil trades and most mechanical trades working in maintenance provision in Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, in Shannon Airport Authority, SAA, and various regional airports. In addition, the union has a larger number of workers supporting these industries in contract support, construction, specialist services, lift maintenance and a number of other sectors.

While taking into account the impact Covid-19 has had generally on the various sectors of the Irish economy, the downturn in the aviation industry has meant, without doubt, that the sector is the most severely impacted. In the first lockdown, passenger throughput in Irish airports reduced by more than 98% and even in phases 2 and 3 of lockdown the throughput was running at a 66% reduction on the same period for 2019. This was even worse than the hospitality industry where phases 2 and 3 of lockdown showed a 50% reduction from the same period in 2019. The situation is even worse for regional airports especially now with the announcement by Ryanair to temporarily suspend services and with the decision by Aer Lingus to move aircraft from Shannon.

I will now turn to the impacts on our members, starting with earnings. The feedback and information we have gathered from our members is that there have been severe reductions in the working week, with the subsequent impact on pay, including half time or one week on, one week off, which equates to a 2.5-day week, or three and four day weeks in some employments. Full-time employment is now almost gone. With regard to job security, there have been redundancies and lay offs with the fear of further redundancies and lay offs. Fixed-term contracts have not been renewed despite previous commitments. This is important because a number of our members are younger members who have taken out mortgages on commitments given under contracts, which have not been renewed.

On health and safety, including mental well-being, our members concerns are around the fear of the virus, adequate and safe procedures, and about proper PPE.

Some employers are using the pandemic to enforce work practice changes which were initially sought prior to the virus and had no relation to the pandemic. They are using the pandemic as an opportunity. Unless assistance is given to the sector, the long-term impacts are likely to be greater than those experienced so far, impacting not only the industries directly affected, but those indirectly affected in the local supply chains and communities local to airports and production and-or maintenance facilities.

In terms of health and safety, and as mentioned earlier, our members have genuine fears for their health and safety as they go about their work in the airports, be that direct interfacing with customers or working on equipment and facilities used by customers. Employers must implement and maintain best practice in the following areas: provision of proper personal protective equipment or PPE; adherence to proper procedures and policies; clear signage and traffic or workflow maps; adequate sick leave to ensure their workers who are unwell do not hide their symptoms and continue to work in order to maintain their income. While not prevalent among State or semi-State employers, this is a concern among subcontractors and service providers; facilitate rapid testing for all passengers and all staff; ensure follow-on checks to ensure arriving passengers isolate, as required, and report, as required; and ensure full contact tracing for all passengers and staff.

Connect Trade Union welcomes the new EU traffic light system primarily as a more accurate and up-to-date measurement system on Covid infection rates in countries providing passenger throughput in our members places of work, and thus offering opportunities to react faster and put in place measures to safeguard our members in their place of work and, by extension, their families and the communities in which they live. Connect Trade Union calls for further supports for the aviation industry to facilitate the following: continued employment; enactment of a comprehensive maintenance programme to take advantage of the current availability of plant and machinery on downtime; prepare the sector for the expected upsurge in travel once the virus subsides and-or a viable vaccine becomes available; and provide all the health and safety measures that I outlined earlier.

The Connect Trade Union welcomes this opportunity to address the committee and I hope members will take our concerns into consideration during their deliberations. While our members in transport and aviation, in particular, continue to work through the pandemic, and will continue to work, all our recommendations must be put in place to ensure their work is safe work.

In terms of earnings and income security, Connect Trade Union is seeking that the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, is extended and improved to ensure employment is maintained in the industry to best cope with the upturn once it comes.

In conclusion, I will make the following points. No worker should be made compulsorily redundant while his or her employer benefits from any Government subsidy during the pandemic. No permanent reduction should occur in any worker's terms and conditions of employment unless by collective agreement while his or her employer avails of any Government subsidy during the pandemic. The EWSS must be increased to 85% of a worker’s net pay pre-Covid similar to the German Kurzarbeitsystem, which is a short-term work system that is negotiated with worker representatives through their trade unions and the payment subside goes directly to the worker. It is generally accepted by economists that the Kurzarbeitsystem was the single greatest contribution to Germany recovering quicker than another country in the 2008 recession. That for any worker on lay off who cannot avail of voluntary redundancy, due to the Government’s temporary suspension of section 12 of the Redundancy Payments Act, that the period of lay off should count as service. Shannon Airport must be returned to be part of the Dublin Airport Authority as we believe that separation has been a failure. We seek the full implementation of the aviation task force report and the full implementation of all the health and safety measures that I have outlined.

On behalf of our members, I thank the committee.