Aer Lingus today announced that it has now disclosed to cabin crew representatives measures to achieve the cost savings originally contemplated under the cost reduction programme announced in October 2009.

The cabin crew representatives were informed of the following measures: targeted compulsory redundancies at statutory minimum levels of 2 weeks per year of service compared with the common practice of big firms to pay six weeks compensation;  the de-layering of the cabin crew organisation; new working conditions to achieve increased productivity; transition to new pay scale including reduced salaries; reduction in variable pay and implementation of new Aer Lingus principles of employment

The airline said assuming the full implementation of all of the measures, it is expected there will be approximately 230 less cabin crew in the organisation and all remaining 750 employees will be on new contracts of employment.

US small business confidence fragile, but likely to improve with easing in bank lending: Davy chief economist, Rossa White, comments: "This week is particularly light for key economic data. A major US government bond auction will probably be the salient event today. But it is worth commenting on a second-line indicator released yesterday: the confidence index for US small business. The NFIB index shows little recovery in confidence (the index is at 88, down from 88.9 last May) since the initial bounce from the floor last spring (from 81 to 88.9). Yet confidence may steadily improve, as the US retail banking sector unfreezes further during 2010.

It has been notable how the ISM — a proxy for the business conditions of medium and large businesses — has diverged from the NFIB index during recovery. Small business optimism has lagged, probably for two main reasons. First, many small businesses related to construction sprang up during the credit bubble. As a chunk of construction capacity evaporated, so too did the medium-term prospects for these related businesses. Second, smaller businesses are more reliant on banks for financing than larger firms which can also tap capital markets. The recent Fed senior loan officer survey showed the first net easing in bank lending standards for almost three years for medium/large firms, but small firms still experienced a slight net tightening in standards.

Importantly though, lending standards for small business are heading in the right direction. The net percentage balance of banks tightening was in single figures as of the last Fed survey, similar to the same juncture in late 2003 or late 1991 when the economy was recovering. Interestingly, the sales outlook of small firms has turned positive in the last two months. In contrast, their expectations for the economy remain low. Recent better results from the regional banking sector suggest that perception may change as bank managers begin to help rather than hinder in the months ahead."

Economic View; Pressure from industrial action must be resisted: Goodbody chief economist, Dermot O’Leary, comments:  "With a plethora of countries in a similar position of late, we are learning some of the unfortunate consequences of a fiscal crisis for the countries involved. When significant sums are needed from international lenders to fund large budget deficits, a key lesson is that power, not literally, but effectively, is removed from national parliaments into the hands of these lenders. The consequences of a government not accepting such a reality is that bond markets would become closed to debt being issued by that country.

This has been the fate of Greece over the past few weeks, where the bond markets and then the EU forced its government into further clear austerity measures to reduce its budget deficit. Bond markets had a similar effect on forcing the Irish government into painful, but necessary, reforms in 2009 too. For this, the Irish government has received a lot of credit, be it from organisations such as the ECB or the European Commission, or indeed as reflected in the reduced risk premium paid on Irish Government debt over the past twelve months. This has been in stark contrast to the types of pictures that have been flashed across the world from the protests seen in Athens over the past few weeks.

It is unfortunate then that what seemed like a modest level of protests from some Irish public sector workers looks to be developing into something bigger, with announcements of strike action yesterday by some health service workers and actions being taken by other departments. The motivation is to reverse some of the pay cuts that were introduced in the Budget last December. Everyone has a right to express their grievances but these actions will prove to be pointless and are counterproductive. With public sector pay having accounted for one-third of expenditure, the government had little choice but to target this area to achieve required savings and did not have the luxury of invoking these changes over a number of years as was suggested by the public sector unions. The government has clearly stated that changes made will not be reversed. In truth, it has stuck to its word on these issues over the past twelve months and must do the same in the face of these actions. It doesn’t have many other options."

It has been ten years since the Dot Com bubble burst. The focus has shifted to investors buying into stocks with something more tangible, Duncan Bell from T3 said Wednesday. Julie Meyer from Ariadne Capital discusses the technological progressions we've seen since then. She likes Palm and Dialogue Semiconductor:

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