ITF: ‘Ryanair’s impunity is over’

31 March 2005

After budget airline Ryanair lost a test case in Belgium, global union federation the ITF stated that the airline’s days of trampling on workers’ rights are over.

Ingo Marowksy, Secretary of the ITF’s Civil Aviation Section, commented: “For years Michael O’Leary has lorded it over his employees and gone in search of the laws and regulations that best suit him.

The days when Michael O’Leary could act with godlike impunity are coming to an end.”

In O’Leary’s latest defeat the Labour Court in Charleroi delivered a judgement that three Belgian employees flying to and from Belgian airport Charleroi were entitled to protection under Belgian labour law – rather than being subject to the laxer Irish regulations that O’Leary had hoped he could claim applied when they signed Irish contracts.

Ingo Marowksy continued: “This is the latest defeat for the company’s attempts to avoid dialogue and sidestep its obligations. In the last few months Spanish unions the UGT and CC.OO have successfully set up a bargaining committee in the face of bitter resistance from O’Leary, while in Ireland the Ialpa/Impact union has achieved major breakthroughs in two court cases.”

He concluded: “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.”

ENDS

For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk

International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org

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