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Court defeat calls Ryanair to account
7 April 2005
Three Belgian Ryanair workers have won a significant victory, following a test case decision protecting them under local labour laws.
Ryanair’s latest defeat, which took place in the labour court in Charleroi, delivered a judgement that entitled the Belgian employees flying to and from Belgian airport Charleroi to protection under Belgian labour law. They were not subject to the laxer Irish regulations that Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary had hoped he could claim applied when they signed Irish contracts.
Ingo Marowksy, ITF Civil Aviation Section Secretary, commented: “For years Michael O’Leary has lorded it over his employees and gone in search of the laws and regulations that best suited him.
“The days when Michael O’Leary could act with godlike impunity are coming to an end.
“Ryanair workers and the unions they want to be able to join are calling Ryanair to account. The courts are waiting. It’s time for the company to do the decent thing and act in a civilised and responsible way, not like a personal fiefdom.”
In the past few months, Spanish unions the Federacion Estatal de Transportes Comunicaciones y Mar and the Confederacion Sindical de Comisiones Obreras successfully set up a Ryanair bargaining committee in the face of bitter resistance from O’Leary. Meanwhile in Ireland the Irish Airline Pilots Union, part of the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union, has made progress in two court cases involving Ryanair.
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