This article is from page 4 of the 2008-01-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
STAFF at Aer Lingus in Shannon have expressed concerns that they are no longer retraining for short- haul flights.
The 169 cabin crew at the airline must take part in a refresher course every year to retain the licence nec- essary to work on short-haul flights.
In recent months, however, staff returning from maternity leave were told that they would not be retrained in short-haul flights this year, just transatlantic.
Sources close to the airline said that since then no other cabin crew have been called for short-haul flight training. A concerned Shan- non worker said that staff have since learnt that a mandate has been issued stating such training will no longer continue in Shannon.
“If a case of lightning striking the plane happens in Shannon again, as it did at the weekend, and the plane is grounded, another crew will have to be brought from Dublin to accom- pany the passengers to Dublin as the new flight will be considered short-
haul.”
The worker said that the training 1s just one extra module with the trans- atlantic retraining and a few extra questions on the annual teat.
If this continues, there will be no staff trained in short-haul flights in Shannon this time next year. Mean- while, talks are continuing at the La- bour Relations Commission, based in Shannon for the first time ever.
While Aer Lingus is looking for 51 redundancies following the removal of the Heathrow slots from Shannon, it is believed that just 20 employees
have applied for the severance deal.
The original cut-off point for ap- plications for the severance deal was this Thursday but that has been ex- tended for three weeks, so staff can consider any recommendations made by the LRC.
Meanwhile, the last Aer Lingus flight to London-Heathrow will leave Shannon on Sunday.
Speaking on Radio One’s