EurECCA urges Ryanair to be fair to passengers, by being fair to crew members


Press Release – Brussels, 25 July 2018 – EurECCA, the European Cabin Crew Association representing more than 35,000 cabin crew, urges Ryanair to put the safety first and avert the upcoming industrial action this week by entering into serious, honest and fruitful negotiations with the unions to address the many concerns around safety issues and unfair pay and conditions faced by pilots and cabin crew throughout Europe.

“The last thing cabin crew staff wish for is for people’s holidays to be ruined due to the inflexibility and single mindedness of Ryanair’s management,” says Christoph Drescher, President of EurECCA. “Our genuine and ongoing attempts to get Ryanair to engage with cabin crew in good faith has fallen on deaf ears as they refuse to listen to or even acknowledge the very real problems we are facing.”
Collectively EurECCA, has raised demands on behalf of cabin crew in Europe.
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:

  1. 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);
  2. Ryanair is to initiate negotiations with the representatives appointed by the unions, without imposing any restrictions;
  3. 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.

These also include a fair living wage and conditions that reflect the value of their work, sick pay, not being forced to open an Irish bank account or change home base at the whim of the company, and being provided with the basics to do their job. But of most importance are demands around safety, for not just the crew, but also the passengers. Earlier this week EurECCA issued a statement over concerns that Ryanair’s refusal to respect EU and national legislation may jeopardise passenger and crew safety.

EurECCA, while it regrets the necessity of this week’s industrial action in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, it fully supports the industrial action as a last resort. Major trade unions from several other European countries are also actively supporting this industrial action, however, due to legal restrictions and extensive bureaucratic procedures, are unable, for the time being, to perform industrial action in their countries. Further industrial actions may follow in the upcoming weeks if Ryanair continues with this deadlock.

About EurECCA
Established in Brussels in 2014, the European Cabin Crew Association, EurECCA, represents, protects and develops the rights and needs of cabin crew all over Europe. It is composed of cabin crew unions from European Union Member States as well as accession and bordering states, and represents some 35,000 cabin crew accounting for 70% of all organised cabin crew in Europe. EurECCA has no political connections.
EurECCA’s work is mainly around cabin and passenger safety and cabin crew health and work and living conditions. Its main aim is to be recognized as a European social partner and, in this capacity, to be regularly consulted within the framework of the social dialogue at the European level.

EurECCA represents, protects and develops the rights and needs of cabin crew all over Europe

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