The real deal: current conditions facing Ryanair staff

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08 October 2004: High pay for staff! Better performance than other airlines! Happy employees! - This is the picture Ryanair tries to paint but the reality is different. Cabin crew are flown into deep fatigue and are underpaid, ground staff are penalised for trying to be on time, and trainee pilots are pushed into debt for years. The ITF has analysed facts and figures, and looked into hundreds of emails we have received from staff. Here is the real picture of the happy world of Ryanair!

Long hours and pressurised working has produced a 21% increase in staff efficiency ratios last year with each Ryanair worker dealing with more than 10,000 passengers during that period. Indeed staff performance was so good that Mr Bonderman, Chairman of the company referred to the workforce as having “again performed miracles…. and we sincerely thank them for their outstanding efforts”. (Chairman’s Report Ryanair Annual Report and Accounts 2004)

But platitudes may not be enough, Mr Bonderman. A 3% pay increase for a 21% increase in productivity seems imbalanced to us, especially since we know that the company was extremely reluctant to pay the salary increase in the first place. However, there doesn’t appear to be the same reluctance when it comes to Directors fees which increased by 35% over the same period. These double standards seem to be part and parcel of life with Ryanair.

Cabin Crew

“I hate the way they treat us: “We have to squeeze cabin crew like lemons”…. Really? We should be free to choose if we want a union and not be scared to join one…. We don’t have any rights in this company….”
- Ryanair cabin crew.

Long working hours is an issue for cabin crew. Just as pilots work to the maximum hours so too do cabin crew. Indeed it has been reported to us that some crew have been working on six sectors a day with no rest in a twelve hour period. Some have also reported working seven days in a row.

The problem is exacerbated with cabin crew employed on different terms and conditions. Recruitment is now underway in Poland and Latvia to recruit cabin crew on less than their UK/Irish counterparts. We have been informed that an “English language school” is ostensibly operating in south Poland as part of a recruitment agency network for Ryanair. Participants have to pay a fee of 1,900 euros for the course and then towards the end of the course are visited by a representative of a company called Crewlink which appears to be the agency. They may offer an employment contract for three years and then the participant is leased out to Ryanair as cabin crew. If you are not offered an employment contract your money is simply lost. If you are taken on as Ryanair cabin crew the pay is 33% less than fellow European cabin crew staff. Similar experiences are also reported from Latvia.

Ground Staff

“I work in reservations and am disgusted with the way in which staff and passengers are treated.”
- Ryanair employee.

“Ryanair admits profits more important than punctuality”. This was the headline recently in the Sunday Tribune (12 Sept 2004) and it reveals the pressures placed on ground staff who are employed by Ryanair.

It was reported that a member of the passenger handling staff was sacked for not collecting £50 excess baggage charges from a customer on a flight to Beauvais. The member of staff explained to the employment tribunal that she didn’t charge the customer as it was an early morning flight and to go through the manual process of charging would have delayed departure. A duty station manager stated at the appeal that “the collection of excess baggage charges was more important than the punctual departure of the flights” and there was a written memo to this effect!

This would seem to contradict the company’s recent statement that they were immensely proud of the fact that over 93% of Ryanair’s flights operated last year arrived at their destination either on or ahead of schedule.

Will this still be the case for 2004, given that excess baggage charges now seem to be the priority? Indeed the company’s policy to charge for any baggage, which cannot go in the overhead lockers, is pushing up the company’s income. “Non-flight scheduled ancillary charges” as they are called in the accounts includes excess baggage charges and this item increased by a staggering 88% percent last year, the biggest percentage increase of all the ancillary income including car hire.

But even more was revealed in the employment tribunal as the staff member stated that Ryanair set a target of £1000 per month for each passenger handling member of staff to collect from excess baggage. She had even collected £7000 over an 8 day Christmas period, which just goes to show the amount of pressure the ground staff are under – not only making sure people get to the plane on time but also extracting money from them for any luggage which goes in the hold.

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Pilots

“All I ask for is fair conditions and respect for the fact I’m a skilled individual and contribute hugely to their success and in return I get nothing.”
- Ryanair trainee pilot.

Generally speaking pilots are amongst the better paid personnel of Ryanair and we have a number of messages from pilots on our website saying they are happy with the job and work conditions. But we also have a number of messages from pilots who are clearly not happy with their working conditions and refer to the intimidation they have been subjected to if they join their respective unions. So there is obviously some disparity here.

Clearly some pilots are paid at the top of the salary scale whilst others are experiencing very different conditions. For trainee pilots their experience is very different. It has been reported to us that they have to pay for their own training which is a huge cost – as much as £60,000 in fees and no salary from Ryanair for the initial period of flying. Flying for shorter hours is not an option either so they are faced with the stressful combination of high debts and working long hours in order to hopefully qualify at some point in the future for a high salary, which is not guaranteed.

Average pay of course is not a good indicator of real pay rates. Sector pay in Ryanair makes up more than 50% of salary which means that pilots can fly up to 40% more hours than their major airline counterparts in order to take home the same pay packet. (Abn Amro report)

As one French pilot with a European major airline told us, “I guess that the majority of Ryanair Flight Crew would appreciate working for a major, but the contrary is not true!”.

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Other pages for News archive:
Safety Investigation at Ryanair | Union pressure successful in Spain | Pilots Win Major Court Victory Over Ryanair! | Ryanair gets caught napping: ITF comment | ITF Press Release: half million hits prove things | Ryanair lose another round in court action against | Landmark Spanish agreement reached to protect gro | Ryanair and the Two-tier Workforce | Ryanair pilots’ association gets off the ground | Ryanair tighten the belt – again | Norwegian unions block Ryanair recruitment! | Ryan-be-fair website gets off to a flying start | Tribunal finds Ryanair’s dismissal of 3 employees | Fair’s fair, Ryanair, let your workers speak | Judge rules injunction against Ryanair disciplinar | Airline unions step up global agreements | Italian air accident agency investigation | Airline cabin crew to Alistair Darling: help licen | European low cost carriers | Outrage over anti-union low fares airline | Trade union representative wins against Ryanair | Ryanair: social low fares airline! | Trade union wins yet another court case | Cabin crew in Italy form union | Ryanair pilots shun O’Leary meetings | Former Buzz staff win compensation from Ryanair | Ryanair’s Bid to become Ireland’s National Airline | Ryanair faces strike action in Spain | Support Ryanair workers in Italy | REPA - Ryanair European Pilots Association | Demonstrations in Madrid

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