Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. I want to raise a specific aspect of this crisis and its effect on aviation, namely, the present rush by Ryanair and Aer Lingus to cut wages, lay off staff and implement widespread redundancies. I am aware that much of this is not necessarily the responsibility of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport but it is the responsibility of the entire Cabinet. The speed and scale of the assault on workers in the aviation industry is particularly acute. This week, Aer Lingus told its Shannon-based crews that they would be temporarily laid off, while those in Dublin and Cork will see their rosters and pay reduced and 900 jobs will be cut. In mid-May, we were told that Ryanair will cut 250 jobs across its bases in Ireland, the UK and Europe as part of a wider threat to cut 3,000 jobs and to impose a 20% pay cut. Separately, the State company, DAA, will cut a potential 1,000 jobs in Dublin and Cork.

Obviously, one would have to be blind not to see that there has been a massive collapse in passenger travel but there are two points I wish to make in relation to these hugely profitable companies. First, in 2018, Aer Lingus reported an operating profit of €305 million and in 2019, an operating profit of €276 million, which is quite substantial. In 2019 Ryanair recorded an operating profit of €1 billion and the previous year its operating profit for the full year was €1.02 billion. Last year the DAA recorded a profit of €133 million. It seems, however, that eaten bread is soon forgotten by the CEOs, shareholders and directors of these companies, who are rushing headlong into throwing their workers on the scrapheap. As we know, these companies are claiming under the wage subsidy scheme for their workers so effectively, the State is meeting a sizeable proportion of their wage bills. Where is the responsibility of these companies to their workers, who generated these massive profits them over the years?

We also have a wider problem. We suspended the operation of the redundancy Acts until 10 August and the suspension could be extended beyond that date. Under Covid-19 emergency legislation, we suspended the right of laid-off workers to exercise their right to redundancy but nowhere did we think to balance the suspension of workers' rights with the suspension of the employer's right to make them redundant. I wish to quote the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Ms Regina Doherty, on the logic of doing this. She stated "If we did not extend the end date further, redundancies could occur in the very near future which will burden employers with further debt and have a serious impact on the potential for a business to recover." Ms Patricia King, who is right and with whom I totally agree, said that it is anomalous and unfair that workers are required to accept long periods of lay-off, while employers remain free to impose redundancy on employees.

Nowhere is that imbalance between workers and employers more obvious than in the aviation industry. We have seen 2,000 workers disgracefully dumped on the scrapheap by Debenhams and another company called Instant Upright that is attempting to do the same. This is why I am calling for a complete moratorium to be placed on employers' facility to dismiss workers on the grounds of redundancy during the period in which section 12 of the 1967 Act remains suspended. Just as workers' right to claim that redundancy has been suspended, so must the right of employers to dismiss workers be suspended during this crisis. What it effectively means is that Ryanair and others are using redundancy as an cost-cutting weapon during the current emergency legislation. It is facilitating employers in evading their responsibility. I repeat that these companies are hugely profitable. Will the Minister go to Cabinet and support the call from ICTU to introduce a moratorium on employers' creating redundancies during the Covid period?

See this speech in context