Month: September 2008

A CLONLARA company has been ordered to pay more than €5,000 in redundancy money by the Employ- ment Appeals Tribunal.

A case for redundancy payments was made against Bellisle Proper- ties Limited, Bellisle, Clonlara by employees, Damien Leo, 2 Belf- 1eld Crescent, Faranshone, Limer- ick; Brendan Rainsford, Aranleigh, Lower Meelick; Barry O’Sullivan,

‘“Fermoyle’, Bartleystown, Clonlara; Andrew John Dolbear, Merlin, Bal- lysimon Road, County Limerick; Barry O’Connell, 23 Derryvinna, Clonlara and Thomas O’Connell, 23 Derryvinna, Clonlara.

All six gave details of their claims to the tribunal. The members of the tribunal heard they had all worked for the Clonlara company, some on a number of different sites.

They had been let go between Octo- ber and December last year after be-

ing told there was no more work for them, the tribunal heard.

In his sworn evidence, Andrew John Dolbear told the tribunal that the re- spondent company had approached him the previous week offering him his job back. He said that he had not responded to that job offer as he had not wanted to affect his claim be- fore the tribunal and he confirmed that he wished to proceed with his redundancy claim. When originally let go, Dolbear said, he asked about

redundancy and holiday money and the owner’s brother had told him that redundancy and holiday money was not his department. He had heard nothing more from the respondent company until last week when they offered him a job.

The tribunal was satisfied that the respondent had been properly noti- fied of the hearings. However, there was no appearance by them or on Web mL olo eT ee

Accepting the uncontested evi-

dence of the six former employees, the tribunal awarded Damien Leo €535, the equivalent of one weeks pay. Brendan Rainsford was awarded £628.86, Barry O’Sullivan €650, Andrew John Dolbear €1,278, Bar- ry O’Connell €627.39 and Thomas O’Connell €1,500.

The awards were made subject to the appellants having been in insur- able employment under the Social Welfare Acts during the relevant pe- riod.

FEARS that budget airline Ryanair could be planning to pull the plug on routes out of its base in Shannon were calmed this week.

But staff at Aer Lingus are facing several weeks of an agonised wait to see if management are planning to sacrifice jobs or wage rates in the face of massive mid-year losses for the airline.

After announcing that he is drop- ping the East Midlands and Glasgow routes out of Cork last week, mav-

erick airline boss, Michael O’ Leary warned he would do the same thing at Shannon if charges increase there.

The board at Shannon are believed to be upbeat about the prospects for their deal with Ryanair when it comes up for renewal in 2010.

A spokesman for the board said last night that the “Ryanair base at Shannon has performed very well. There’s a very strong and positive working relationship with Ryanair and we look forward to working with the airline beyond 2010”.

O’Leary has blamed rising costs

at Cork for the decision to pull the routes and had warned that any in- crease in costs at Shannon would provoke a similar move.

Meawhile, Aer Lingus workers at the airport still have no idea whether the airline will again look to them to make savings for the company after announcing ۩22.3 million in losses TUOM Natoma Dec] mmc D.@paelO)O LO NTE

SIPTU representatives say they are not going to anticipate any move by the company, but are pointing out that staff have taken the brunt of the cuts in the past and cannot be expect-

ed to solve the difficulties caused by rising oil prices.

There was further speculation about the future of the airline’s trans- atlantic route to Chicago, which flies to Dublin via Shannon.

The airline issued a strong denial that it was considering dropping the route after revelations of falling pas- senger numbers.

Elected representatives have said they don’t trust the airline after it re- moved the Shannon Heathrow slots and transferred them to Belfast.