Ryanair lose another round in court action against pilots
July 2006
Trade union wins yet another court case
In Ireland, the Irish Times has recently reported that “a High Court Judge has rejected claims by Ryanair that its pilots or their unions had engaged in bullying, intimidation or isolation of other pilots over conditions imposed by Ryanair related to training on new aircraft. “The only evidence of bullying was by Ryanair itself”, Mr Justice Thomas Smyth stated. He described as “most onerous and bordering on oppression” a condition requiring pilots to pay Ryanair 15,000 Euros for training on new aircraft in 2004. The 15,000 Euros was payable by pilots if they left the company within five years or if Ryanair was required to engage in collective bargaining within the same period.
The airline has also been ordered to pay court cost exceeding 1,000,000 Euros to the British and the Irish pilots’ union, following the ruling at the Dublin High Court, as they lost the case.
In addition the Judge also rejected as “baseless and false” the evidence of Ryanair director of personnel Eddie Wilson in relation to setting up the investigation and considered the evidence of Warwick Brady who was formerly with Ryanair in Stansted in 2004 to have given false evidence”
18th October 2005
In its ongoing legal dispute with its pilots, Ryanair has lost its latest round of action at the High Court in Dublin.
The Labour Court had previously taken the decision to investigate complaints by pilots which led to a finding that a trade dispute exists between the notoriously union-unfriendly airline and Impact, the trade union to which pilots’ union IALPA belongs. Ryanair’s recent attempt to quash this finding was rejected by Mr Justice Michael Hanna on Friday 14th October.
The judge said that the Labour Court was permitted to continue its full investigation into allegations brought by pilots represented by IALPA after Ryanair refused to negotiate with unionised pilots.
This ruling serves to show yet again that Ryanair is appearing increasingly isolated in its treatment of its employees. Ryanair has now vowed to appeal this most recent ruling at the Supreme Court in Ireland, showing the company’s apparent inability to accept defeat. However, as the judgement stands and if the Supreme Court also upholds this most recent decision, this could also have a positive effect in another case which deals with an investigation into individual claims by Ryanair pilots. This could expose Ryanair to claims of up to EURO 50 million plus further legal costs.
For further background information, please see the story ‘Pilots Win Major Court Victory Over Ryanair!’.
