Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1980 > Committee on Commercial State-Sponsored Bodies > Report No. 14 - Aer Lingus, Teoranta and Aerlínte Éireann, Teoranta

APPENDIX 4

NOTE FROM AER LINGUS CONCERNING CERTAIN EVIDENCE GIVEN TO THE COMMITTEE BY A TRADE UNION WITNESS

It would not be appropriate to comment on the remarks made by Mr. Eamon Griffin (IT&GWU) in relation to unnamed employees of the airline. His main point is that insufficient discretion is given to line departments on industrial relations matters. This is a critical aspect of personnel management but it is the explicit policy of the airline to delegate to the greatest possible extent on these matters to line departments. Clearly some company-wide industrial relations matters cannot be handled by individual departments, e.g. basic pay rates, annual leave entitlements. We also have agreements on grading of jobs for clerical and operative staff which cover many departments.

However, there are many areas such as handling of grievances and disciplinary issues, rosters and shift patterns, absenteeism, staff development, communications, etc. where the departmental management have the primary responsibility. We have taken a good deal of trouble in recent years to agree written policy guidelines with local management covering these matters to facilitate on-the-spot decision-making.

We are satisfied that we have made considerable progress in implementing this policy and will continue our efforts to ensure that departments are given every support in handling local industrial relations matters.

5 August 1980