Irish airline Aer Lingus warned employees Wednesday that it will implement an alternative cost cutting plan if agreement cannot be reached over proposed measures by the end of November.
Aer Lingus, which has fended off two hostile bids by Irish rival Ryanair, the industry leader in cutting costs, wants to reduce its annual operating costs by EUR97 million euros (USD$145.2 million) by shedding almost one-fifth of staff.
The SIPTU and UNITE unions, which represent ground staff and technical workers at the company, oppose the cuts and the airline said it had agreed to meet employee representatives.
Aer Lingus said compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out if the required savings had not been agreed in full when talks conclude on November 30.
"These alternative means will include further reductions in capacity resulting from an uneconomic cost base, which in turn will lead to additional redundancies beyond those included in the plan," the former state carrier said in a statement.
"While the preference will be for such redundancies to be on a voluntary basis, compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out," it added.
Aer Lingus, which has rapidly been burning through its cash reserves, re-affirmed that it was essential the planned savings were urgently achieved in, what it described as, an extremely challenging operating environment.
