Memo proposals never adopted, says Aer Lingus supremo
Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman has insisted the measures outlined in a leaked memo were never approved by the company's board of directors.
The memo appeared to show the airline considered a range of measures to make life difficult for staff in an effort to secure voluntary redundancies.
They included the introduction of tacky uniforms, awkward shift patterns and tedious training programmes.
Trade unions have claimed that, while the measures themselves were not implemented, the airline had adopted a similar attitude to that of the memo.
However, speaking before the Oireachtas Transport committee today, Mr Sharman said: "A number of policies have in fact been put in place over recent months that are completely at odds with what is discussed in this document.
"It was never embraced or approved by the senior management team or at board level. As executive chairman of the airline, I had never seen the document until early last week."
Despite this, SIPTU's Mick Halpenny later told the committee that a culture of intimidation had been adopted by Aer Lingus.
"People told us that they were being pressurised," he said. "What has happened is that the company has put a gun to people's heads. People have been told it is basically jump or be pushed."
