01 Sep 2004 -
Ryan-Be-Fair

20 August 2004: Meetings called by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary to ‘persuade pilots not to join the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA)’ have backfired, as hundreds of pilots refused to attend, leaving O’Leary furious.

Pilots who failed to attend the meetings have seen their career prospects threatened by the airline refusing to train Dublin-based pilots on the new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, forcing them to pay for their own training at a cost of up to 35,000 Euros if the unions continued with their recruitment campaign. In a further attempt to quash union membership, Ryanair’s head of personnel in Dublin had leaflets provided by IALPA and BALPA removed from pilots’ pigeon holes.

This is just one incident in the ‘ongoing spat between Ryanair and its pilots over pay and working conditions’, which has seen pensions frozen, and pilots having to pay for their own uniforms and medical examinations due to O’Leary’s cost-cutting measures.

Quotes taken from The Irish Times, 20 August 2004.