United we stand! A Dutch court sentenced Ryanair to pay damages to a cabin crew member because she was fired for not showing up in Dublin after a forced change of her home base from Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Dublin. That is remarkable, because according to her Irish contract Ryanair could force her to move. The Dutch judge however sentenced that in this case Dutch law goes above Irish law and Ryanair had no grounds to fire her. EurECCA welcomes this clear judgement on Home Base and the protection this gives to cabin crew from being send around Europe at will of Ryanair.
The judgement also constitutes a back support to Ryanair cabin crew across Europe who are more and more united in their determination to engage in a meaningful and genuine dialogue with their management on labour law issues that concern those who contribute to the airline’s success on a daily basis.
In order to allow cabin crew to consider Ryanair as an attractive employer, not just as a place to start but also as a place to continue their career, several key issues need to be tackled across the entire network. These include:
- Ryanair must apply imperative national legislation to the contracts of employment and must comply with all internal human resources procedures of all European countries they have home bases in, under the EU REG 293/2008 (Rome I);
- Ryanair is to initiate negotiations with the representatives appointed by the unions, without imposing any restrictions;
- Ryanair must apply the same terms and conditions to all Ryanair Cabin Crew, including cabin crew employed via Workforce, Crewlink and any other future 3rd party company.
Regretfully, Ryanair choses to continue to ignore its workforce and gave these National Unions, no other choice but to call for a national 24 hours industrial action.
EurECCA actively supports this industrial action and calls upon the European Commission, and the Governments of every European country where Ryanair operates a home base, to act upon the social dumping performed by the Irish low cost carrier. National authorities are responsible for the enforcement of EU legislation and national imperative legislation. Ryanair can not be allowed to switch between EU and Irish legislation at their convenience.
Protecting cabin crews rights is one of the core principles of EurECCA
EurECCA also supports the National Unions in their demand to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the national civil aviation authorities to be more vigilant with Ryanair, and make them abide by the law. All flight time limitations and rest requirements must be followed, even on a strike day!
EurECCA supports the National Unions in their belief that Ryanair has to change its policy and attitude towards its Cabin Crew. Furthermore, Ryanair has to incorporate into its business model once and for all, the values of the European Union which are based on human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law.
On behalf of the EurECCA board and the whole European Cabin Crew family.
EurECCA represents, protects and develops the rights and needs of cabin crew all over Europe
EurECCA Executive Board
