Actuaries hired by trade unions representing past and present airport workers appear to back calculations used by the company to arrive at the figure for how much it should inject into a new pension scheme.
DAA staff are moving to a defined contribution fund into which the company is proposing to put €72 million as part of a deal designed to settle a long dispute over their previous retirement plan, the Irish Airlines’ Staff Superannuation (IASS) scheme, which became insolvent more than four years ago.
A number of the unions say the sum is not enough, and argue that the DAA used different assumptions to arrive at the figure for its contribution than Aer Lingus, which is going through a similar exercise and intends putting €190 million into the new fund.
However, consulting actuaries John G Byrne & Sons, hired by the unions, have written to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to say that the assumptions used by the company "are within the ranges of what would be regarded as reasonable so one cannot say that they are inappropriate".
Pay freeze
The DAA figures assume a five-year pay freeze, followed by an annual 2 per cent increase over five years, beginning in 2020, and 2 per cent pay inflation after that.
Aer Lingus assumes 2 per cent salary inflation beginning immediately.
DAA chairman Pádraig Ó Ríordáin told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport last week that the company's offer was full and final and was open until March 15th.
Unlike Aer Lingus, unions at the airport company have yet to ballot their members on the proposals. They are based on recommendations made by an expert panel appointed by the Government last year to help resolve the dispute, which brought both the airline and airport to the brink of strike a number of times.
Mr Ó Ríordáin told the committee that the panel was clarifying a number of issues with the union Siptu and Ictu.
"The DAA's preference throughout this process has been to secure collective agreement for the company's proposal, which is a full and final offer to resolve the pension issues at the company and follows the recommendations of both the Labour Court and the expert panel," he said.
In the meantime, the old IASS, which had a shortfall of €750 million, was frozen on December 31st.
The settlement resulted in benefits to pensioners and current and former workers all being cut. One group of retired staff recently said it was pressing ahead with plans to take legal action.
