& Submits Competition Complaint To EU Commission Over Competitor Airline Pilots/Cabin Crew Interference In Its Trade Union Negotiations
Ryanair has today (Wed 26 Sept) published its offer to pilots and cabin crew in order to set the record straight, correct competitor trade union propaganda and pave the way to a speedy conclusion of collective labour agreements (CLA’s) with its people and their unions.
Ryanair has also submitted a competition complaint to the European Commission, calling for an investigation of the anti-competitive behaviour of certain competitor airline crew, unions and lobby groups, who are actively impeding Ryanair’s negotiations with its pilots/cabin crew and who are organising repeated strikes in an effort to damage Ryanair’s business and customer confidence, for the benefit of Ryanair’s competitors.
Ryanair has made significant progress over the past 9 months in negotiations with trade unions across Europe, which include:
– Irish recognition agreement with FORSA union, covering pilots, and cabin crew.
– Irish mediation agreement covering pilot seniority, promotions, and base transfers.
– Recognition and CLA agreements for all Ryanair pilots based in Italy.
– Recognition and CLA agreements for all cabin crew based in Italy.
– Recognition agreement with BALPA covering all UK based pilots.
– Recognition agreement with Unite covering all UK based cabin crew.
– Recognition agreement with Verdi to cover German cabin crew.
Despite all this progress in a short 9-month period, Ryanair continues to face significant impediments in certain countries where competitor airline pilots and cabin crew are interfering in negotiations, or blocking progress, up to and including organising unnecessary strikes, most notably;
– In Spain, Norwegian cabin crew in Alicante are organising these cabin crew strikes.
– In Portugal, TAP cabin crew are organising these strikes.
– In the Netherlands, the pilots union insist that a KLM pilot negotiates with Ryanair.
– In Sweden, pilot unions refused to meet unless a Braathens pilot is invited.
Ryanair has complained that some 8% of its (450,000) customers are facing strikes and flight disruptions on Fri 28th Sept over demands made 2 weeks ago by these competitor airline pilots and cabin crew, which Ryanair has already agreed to, including:
– Local contracts in Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Germany in early 2019.
– Local law and local tax as part of a CLA in early 2019.
– National seniority lists, similar to that agreed in Ireland.
– Base transfer agreements based on seniority (as already agreed in Ireland).
Ryanair’s business is being damaged by unnecessary strikes and disruptive interference in our bona fide union negotiations, promoted and coordinated by competitor airline employees, their unions and lobby groups. This is an unlawful attempt to distort competition and customer choice, for the benefit of legacy airlines. Ryanair calls on DG COMP to immediately investigate the nature of this collective campaign, including numerous behind-closed-doors meetings held under the banners of the ECA (competitor pilots) and the ITF (competitor cabin crew). The object and effect of this unlawful behaviour has been to impede the progress of Ryanair’s industrial relations engagement regardless of the status of individual union negotiations, as evidenced by the unnecessary pan European strike on Fri 28 Sept, which was agreed in a meeting of several cabin crew unions in Rome on 7 Sept last.
Ryanair has offered to meet with our people and their unions in every EU country with the only pre-condition being no competitor employee involvement. Lufthansa does not allow Ryanair people to join in its union negotiations in Germany. Similarly, in Spain and Portugal, when Iberia and TAP meet their unions, they do not negotiate with Ryanair pilots or cabin crew. While Ryanair is new to the process of negotiating with unions, it is simply unlawful and anti-competitive that certain unions are insisting that competitor airline pilots and cabin crew participate in meetings with Ryanair, where our business, pay and terms and conditions are discussed.
Speaking in Brussels today, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:
“We have made real progress with the unions and our people in many EU countries since we agreed to recognise unions in Dec 2017. However, in certain countries, most notably in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden similar progress is being impeded by the interference of competitor airline pilots and cabin crew who are conspiring to call repeated and unnecessary strikes, which are disrupting Ryanair’s customers, and damaging our business for the benefit of their legacy airline employers.
We are not aware of any other multi-national company in Europe where its union negotiations are interfered with by competitor employees. Volkswagen’s union negotiations do not take place with Peugeot car workers. Tesco is not required to meet with ASDA employees. Yet in Ryanair currently, we are being asked to negotiate with pilots and/or cabin crew of Aer Lingus, Norwegian, TAP, Eurowings, KLM and Braathens. This is anti-competitive behaviour which damages consumers.
The majority of Ryanair’s pilots and cabin crew do not support these strikes, and they have continued to work normally. We work hard to ensure that our people enjoy the best pay, terms and conditions of any low cost 737 airline in Europe. Our pilots and cabin crew wish to come to work free from intimidation from these competitor unions. They are being denied this opportunity by unnecessary strikes, which are being organised unlawfully on a Europe wide basis in meetings of competitor airline pilots and cabin crew. This is damaging Ryanair’s business for the benefit of legacy airlines. We have today published our offer to pilots and cabin crew, and call on the European Commission – if it’s going to defend the growth of low fare air travel and consumer choice – to take action now to prevent these competitor airline employees from interfering with our business and damaging the best interests of our customers to the benefit of high fare legacy airlines”.
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (26 Sep) announced a new route from Bournemouth to Prague, with a twice-weekly service commencing in April 2019, which will be a part of Ryanair’s Summer 19 schedule.
British consumers and visitors can now enjoy even lower fares and the latest “Always Getting Better” improvements including:
– Reduced checked-in bag fees
– lower £25 x 20kg check bag
– lower £8 x 10kg check bag
– Ryanair Rooms with 10% off Travel Credit
– Ryanair Transfers
– wider choice of ground transport with new partner Car Trawler
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Ryanair is pleased to announce a new Bournemouth route to Prague, commencing in April 2019, which will operate twice-weekly as part of our Summer 2019 schedule.
“To celebrate we are releasing seats for sale on this new route from £24.99 for travel in April 2019. This offer is available for booking until midnight Friday (28 Sept). Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”
Over 90% Of Scheduled Flights Are Unaffected
Ryanair today (25 Sept) advised customers that it has pre-cancelled 190 (8%) of its 2,400 scheduled flights on Fri 28th due to a unnecessary strike by a tiny minority of cabin crew in Spain, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Germany. All affected customers have received emails and text SMS messages this morning advising them of their flight cancellation 3 days in advance.
Ryanair sincerely regrets these unnecessary customer disruptions, which have been called by unions at the behest of competitor airline employees. In Spain, a Norwegian cabin crew member in Alicante is driving the strike, in Portugal a TAP cabin crew is calling for strikes without the support of our Portuguese cabin crew, and in Italy where Ryanair yesterday signed a CLA agreement with the 3 main cabin crew unions, this threatened strike has been called by a tiny union which has no recognition or support among our Italian cabin crew.
Ryanair has made significant progress in recent weeks with our union negotiations, which include pilot and/or cabin crew agreements in Ireland, UK, Italy and Germany. In the last 2 weeks, Ryanair has written to the pilot unions in Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Germany inviting them to negotiate similar agreements to that reached with FORSA in Ireland for both pilots and cabin crew.
Ryanair has also agreed to move to local contracts, local law and local taxation as quickly as possible in 2019, subject to only reaching CLA agreements with national unions in each country. We are therefore disappointed that these unions led by Eurowings pilots in Germany, KLM pilots in Holland, and Aer Lingus pilots in Ireland continue to interfere, and campaign for strikes, to disrupt Ryanair’s customers and damage Ryanair’s business for the benefit of their high fare airline employers.
Ryanair apologises to the 30,000 (out of 450,000) customers who are likely to be affected by these unjustified disruptions on Fri 28th. These strikes are unnecessary when Ryanair has already agreed to the union demands for local contracts and local T&C’s. As these strikes are being promoted and driven by competitor employees, they are regrettably beyond Ryanair’s control. All Ryanair customers flying on Fri 28th who have not yet received an email or text SMS notice today can expect that their flight will operate as scheduled. Over 90% of Ryanair’s 2,400 flights and 450,000 customers on Fri will be unaffected by these unnecessary strikes.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“We sincerely apologise to those customers affected by these unnecessary strikes on Friday, which we have done our utmost to avoid, given that we have already offered these unions recognition agreements, Collective Labour Agreements, and a move to local contracts/law in 2019.
These repeated unnecessary strikes are damaging Ryanair’s business and our customer confidence at a time when oil prices are rising strongly, and if they continue, it is inevitable that we will have to look again at our capacity growth this winter and in summer 2019. We hope these unions will see common sense and work with us to finalise agreements for the benefit of our pilots and cabin crew over the coming weeks without further disrupting our customers or our flights.
When we can successfully do deals with unions in Ireland, the UK, Germany and Italy, why are some unions in Belgium, Holland and Spain not doing similar deals? ”
Ryanair today (25 Sep) confirmed that it has agreed a Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) with the 3 main cabin crew unions FIT CISL, ANPAC, and ANPAV, to cover all Ryanair’s Italian based cabin crew from 1 Oct 2018.
This proposed CLA will:
– Run for 3 years from Fri 1 Oct 2018 to 31 Dec 2021
– Be governed by Italian law and the Italian Courts
– Allow Italian cabin crew transition to local contracts over an agreed period with immediate access to Italian benefits such as maternity and paternity leave.
– Deliver increased pay under a new pay structure, which will see crews benefit from increased tax free allowances (similar to other Italian airlines)
– Introduce an Italian Pension Scheme as part of the overall package
Ryanair’s Chief People Officer, Eddie Wilson said:
“We have signed a CLA with the 3 Italian cabin crew unions, which will cover all of our Italian based cabin crew, will lead to significant pay improvements and other benefits for our Italian based cabin crew, and will start from next month. This follows recent cabin crew agreements in Ireland with FORSA and in the UK with UNITE.
This is a further sign of the significant progress Ryanair is making in reaching agreements with our people and their unions in different EU countries, and disproves false claims made by smaller unions not involved in these negotiations, and who are threatening strikes, which will either not take place or be unsuccessful.
We have again invited our German, Portuguese and Spanish unions to meet with us so that we can negotiate and hopefully agree similar CLAs in these other larger markets.”
Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (25 Sep) announced that it has rescheduled its flight from Manchester to Milan Bergamo on 7 November to accommodate Man Utd supporters travelling to their Champions League clash with Juventus in Turin, following huge demand from fans.
Ryanair’s Champions League special will now depart Manchester at 06.30hrs on Wednesday 7th November. Seats are limited and selling fast, so Ryanair advises Man Utd fans to log on to www.ryanair.com and book these Champions League special flights as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Manchester United have started their Champions League campaign with a bang, and their fans are following the team in huge numbers as always, with strong demand from Man Utd supporters for their Champions League fixtures. We’ve rescheduled our flight on 7th November to Milan Bergamo for United’s away game at Juventus, which is on sale now and selling fast – only on Ryanair.com.”
Ryanair Holdings Plc today (20 Sept) held its 2018 AGM, during which shareholders approved all resolutions by large majorities. Details of the voting is set out in the table below.
As previously disclosed in the Company’s 2018 Annual Report, Charlie McCreevy and Declan McKeon chose not to seek re-election at the AGM. Chairman David Bonderman sincerely thanked both Charlie and Declan for their substantial contribution over the last 8 years and welcomed both Emer Daly and Róisín Brennan as new members of the Board.
Ryanair today (19 Sept) welcomed the French Supreme Court ruling in the Marseille employment case, which confirmed Ryanair’s position that the E101 certificates issued by Ireland in respect of its pilots and cabin crew who were temporarily based in Marseille are binding on the French Authorities and the French Courts as previously ruled by the ECJ. The French Supreme Court also cancelled all convictions against Ryanair and returned the Case to the Paris Court of Appeal for rehearing.
This French Supreme Court ruling, which follows the ECJ ruling in the A-Rosa case, now obliges the French Authorities to accept and respect the Irish E101 certificates, which were issued to Ryanair’s pilots and cabin crew who were temporarily based in Marseille during the period 2006 – 2010.
Ryanair’s Chief People Officer, Eddie Wilson said:
“We welcome this favourable ruling from the French Supreme Court which fully respects the earlier favourable ECJ ruling in the A-Rosa case.
We believe that this decision will now lead to an early and favourable conclusion of the criminal cases and tax demands in Aix-en-Provence. This should in due course lead to the repayment of up to €13m of social tax payments, which Ryanair was required to put into escrow to cover two such cases in 2014 and 2017.
We welcome this French Supreme Court ruling, which now paves the way for Ryanair to consider re-entering the French market. We are already in discussions with a number of French airports, and the French Ministry of Labour, which we hope will lead to Ryanair announcing some bases in France in the near future, but with pilots and cabin crew based in France, on local French contracts, and paying their social taxes in France rather than Ireland.
We have asked our lawyers to expedite the rehearing of this case by the Paris Court of Appeal now that the French Supreme Court and the ECJ in Strasbourg has ruled in favour of Ryanair and the Irish issued E101 certificates”.
ENDS