Aer Lingus set to work to rule
A WORK to rule by some cabin crew members is now on the cards from next week at Aer Lingus in the ongoing row at the airline over rosters.
Crew members who are members of the IMPACT trade union have served notice of industrial action from this day week.
The move by the union follows its withdrawal from talks on how to implement an arbitration finding on the matter by the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey.
Aer Lingus says it will do everything in its power to ensure that customers’ travel plans are not disrupted.
The airline says it is “regrettable that after a year of talks, two separate ballots and a binding arbitration process” the union’s cabin crew members have chosen to threaten its customers with industrial action
The row is over new rosters at the airline, which increase the hours of cabin crew to 850 a year.
The industrial action is expected to take the form of a work-to-rule and the union says it does not expect any immediate disruption to services for passengers.
Microsoft to counter iPad with Slate
A MICROSOFT slate to counter Apple’s popular iPad tablet computer will be seen in the US by Christmas, Microsoft’s Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has said.
“You’ll see new slates with Windows on them. You’ll see them this Christmas,” he told an audience of students, staff and journalists at the London School of Economics. “Certainly we have done work around the tablet as both a productivity device and a consumption device,” he said.
IT research firm Gartner expects 10 million tablet PCs to be sold this year as consumers begin embracing such devices, which include Dell’s Streak and Asustek’s Eee Pad. The Apple iPad alone sold 3.3 million in its first quarter.
Hands off Ireland’s tax – Cox tells EU
IT WOULD be a “grave error of judgement by the EU” if it tried to force Ireland’s hand on corporate taxation, former Irish politician and former President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, said in a speech this week.
Speaking at the annual Fleet Transport Awards, he referred to commissioner Olli Rhen’s comments last week in which he said: “it’s a fact of life that after what has happened, Ireland will not continue as a low-tax country, but it will rather become a normal tax country in the European context”. “I do not want to take any precise stand on an issue which is for the Irish Government and the Irish parliament to decide, but I would not rule out any option at this stage.”
Mr Cox said that the Lisbon Treaty is an internationally binding treaty registered with the UN and that it includes a clause that protects Ireland’s right to decide its own tax laws.
He points out that the treaty states: “Nothing in the Treaty of Lisbon makes any change of any kind, for any Member State, to the extent or operation of the competence of the European Union in relation to taxation.
“The Irish people are entitled to rely on this guarantee in respect of taxation when it comes to their government’s right to set Irish corporate tax rates. The European Union can do nothing to compel a change in Irish domestic policy on taxation. This is confirmed by past decisions of the European Court of Justice and it has not been changed by the Lisbon Treaty. On the contrary, the Treaty guarantees explicitly underline Ireland’s sovereign rights regarding taxation policy,” said Mr Cox.
“It would be a grave error of judgement by the EU, its servants or its member states, however powerful or influential they may be, to seek to force Ireland’s hand on corporate taxation because of the current pressure of exceptional and difficult economic events. The rule of law, solemn guarantees and high level institutional and political assurances must count for something. If not, the very legitimacy of the EU itself would be called into question.”
Source BizWorld
