ABSTRACT
To this point, the analysis has examined the emergence of workplace partnership in Aer Rianta, its development and roll-out and its consequences for management, employees and trade unions. The discussion revealed how all parties – management, unions and workers – though critical of some or even many aspects of CP, were able nevertheless to point to benefits and achievements that flowed from the initiative at some stages or levels in the process. The survey of employees’ views in Chapter 8, which involved over 600 respondents across the three airports, revealed that, the more intimately involved employees were with CP activities and the greater their level of job autonomy, the more positive their attitudes to partnership; the more positively they viewed employee relations; and the higher their level of commitment to both their jobs in Aer Rianta and to their unions. Partnership also engaged constructively with the two major commercial challenges which the company faced in the late 1990s – the loss of intra-EU duty-free sales and the strategic review of the company – to the degree that traditional managerial decision-making processes and industrial relations channels were subsumed. The Compact also set down clear parameters for the company’s business strategies which committed management and unions to working cooperatively to ensure that the future success of the company was based on prioritizing quality and customer service over labour costs and flexibility.
