Five hundred and fifty workers at Shannon airport yesterday overwhelmingly endorsed a €36 million survival plan for the airport.
The deal involves the voluntary redundancy of 200 staff at Shannon Airport Authority (SAA), the outsourcing of several sectors of the airport operation and the SAA exiting completely from catering.
The 350 workers who remain are to receive a payment of €16,000, which will cost the SAA €5.6 million.
The SAA is now to write to each of the 550 workers at Shannon to ascertain the numbers opting for early redundancy. The deal will collapse if the SAA cannot secure the 200 redundancies needed to make annual cost savings at Shannon of up to €10 million.
Siptu represents the largest proportion of workers at Shannon and of the 423 members who participated, 84 per cent voted in favour of the plan, with 87 per cent of Impact members voting in favour and 81 per cent of TEUU members voting in favour.
Last year, the airport made a profit due only to the 280,000 US troops that passed through Shannon and SAA executive chairman, Pat Shanahan said yesterday: "We welcome the acceptance of this programme by staff as the next step to ensuring Shannon airport has a viable platform from which to grow.
"I would like to acknowledge the commitment shown by staff representatives in securing Shannon airport's future during the recent discussions."
"The timely and effective implementation of this restructuring programme is vital if Shannon airport is to successfully meet the challenges of open skies and of intense competition from other airports. Shannon airport and its staff have a long and proud tradition of both pioneering and adapting to change in the aviation industry.
"I am confident that the foundations are now being put in place to underpin Shannon's status as the major transport gateway to the west of Ireland, which will have the potential to develop as a financially and operationally independent airport, driving economic growth throughout the region," he added.
Talks on the deal commenced almost two years ago and the slow progress has prevented the SAA from lodging a business plan with the Government to become an independent entity.
In January, workers at Shannon overwhelmingly rejected a previous survival plan, valued at €34 million.
However, marathon negotiations under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission last month at the airport resulted in the SAA agreeing to provide an additional €2 million to a revised plan.
Those with 24 years' experience or more who opt to leave will receive more than €100,000.
