After months of repeated strike action to get the management’s attention, a victory has come for Belgium based Ryanair pilots. The labour court in Charleroi, where the airline’s only remaining base in Belgium is, has ruled against Ryanair in a case on wages and unilaterally changing pilot rosters.
The unions representing Ryanair’s Belgium-based pilots had brought the airline to court for not complying with the collective labour agreement (CLA) signed in May 2021. The case was brought to court in September 2022, concerning the airline’s refusal to comply with the CLA and refusing to return pilots’ salaries back to pre-Covid levels, as well as adjust for inflation. Moreover, according to Didier Lebbe, from the CNE union, Ryanair had attempted to coerce the unions by threatening schedule changes if the proposed wage agreement was not accepted.
While Ryanair tried to dismiss the case on insufficient grounds, arguing the issue is not urgent enough to require a legal battle, the Charleroi court dismissed the airline’s claims and ruled both that Ryanair has to comply with the CLA and cannot make changes to rosters without mutual agreement. A meeting is now scheduled between the unions and airline management and it remains to be seen whether they can find an agreeable solution for both parties.
Background
The pilots signed an agreement in 2020 to have their salaries reduced by 20% under the condition of having the pay brought back as soon as the crisis was going to end. The low cost airline now operates 15% more flights than before the pandemic, having turned a profit of €170 million in the first quarter of 2022, and O’Leary has recently increased his salary, without however doing the same for his employees.
The pilots have taken repeated collective action since last summer, but Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary simply threatened to leave the country in response. “If that’s your position, so be it. But then you will be on strike for a very long time”, he said in July 2022
The unions have previously said that even during the pandemic the reduced wages were not paid correctly. “During this period, the pilots were on temporary unemployment. Ryanair had to pay a top-up for each day of unemployment. Without respecting the rules of the aviation sector, Ryanair however paid this top-up once a month, instead of every day”, explained Didier Lebbe and Hans Elsen.
