Vol. 495 No. 1
145 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the nature of the agreement reached with workers in TEAM Aer Lingus relating to their pensions in view of the long standing common arrangements with other workers in the Aer Lingus Group considering the frustration which exists among the former TEAM Aer Lingus employees in view of the fact TEAM Aer Lingus executives received severance payment of £61,000 after only two years working for the company. [19219/98]
I am informed by Aer Lingus that all employees who were made an offer to transfer their employment from TEAM Aer Lingus to FLS can avail of one of the following options in relation to their pension: Remain in the airline's superannuation scheme; transfer to a new FLS pension scheme with their past service benefits; or transfer to a new FLS pension scheme and leave their past service benefits in the Irish airline's superannuation scheme as deferred benefits.
The details of these options have been communicated to each of the employees in writing. Each employee also had the opportunity to avail of a consultation with pension and taxation experts.
I am also informed, in relation to the question on severence payments paid to TEAM Aer Lingus executives, that the transfer payments made to all staff including executives are based on the same formula which includes a number of weeks pay for each service year. Aer Lingus advises that it is therefore not possible for any employee including executives of TEAM Aer Lingus with low service to have received payments of the order of magnitude suggested.
