Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

At a time when workers are rightly calling for pay increases to deal with the issue of inflation, I want to draw the Taoiseach's attention to the fact that Aer Lingus, a company that got a hell of a lot of public money during Covid-19, is forcing its ground operation workers to vote on a pay freeze until 2025 and, in some cases, take a 10% permanent pay cut on their restored duty allowances. This is a deal that 84% of the workers rejected before Christmas. The company is making them vote again and said it will outsource 100% of the operations if the workers do not accept this. That is outrageous. Aer Lingus is a company that went into Covid-19 with cash reserves of €900 million. Its cargo operations saw a significant increase in profitability even during the pandemic. Now, it is trying to impose pay cuts and tear up contracts and agreements with workers and drive their pay down. Does the Taoiseach think it is acceptable that a company which got so much public money during Covid-19 should be doing this to its ground operations workforce?

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