Last week, Belgium-based Ryanair pilots announced their intent to strike on 15 and 16 July, unless the airline was willing to negotiate their salaries and working hours. Since they have received no reply, the strike goes ahead this weekend, with over 100 flights cancelled at Brussels’ Charleroi Airport.
The airport has published a list of cancelled flights for this weekend and asks passengers not to go to the airport if their flight has been cancelled. So far, 54 flights are scrapped for Saturday, 15 July, and 48 on Sunday, 16 July.
We have been trying to engage in dialogue with Ryanair for six months, but to no avail so now we have to pull the emergency brake.
Hans Elsen, ACV Puls union
When Covid-19 broke out and travel restrictions left airlines basically without business, many resorted to firing staff, but Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO decided to lower everyone’s salary, including his own, and keep everybody employed. 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 would end. However, Christian trade union CNE/ACV Puls said the pilots signed the 2020 agreement only because they were being threatened and blackmailed.
Moreover, the pilots’ current labour agreement states they have to be on stand-by 5 days a week, meaning they should be prepared to fly at any time in case they are needed, and Ryanair wants to extend that to 6 days, without compensating for the lost day off. “Belgian legislation clearly states that Ryanair cannot change this unilaterally. They have already received several notifications about that, but they just ignore them”, explained Hans Elsen of the Christian union ACV Puls. “In theory Ryanair follows Belgian rules, but in practice they implement what they want without taking working conditions into account.”
“We know it could cause a lot of difficulties for travellers, but we have been trying to engage in dialogue for six months now, all to no avail. Ryanair is a company that only listens when it hurts economically. Hopefully with this action we will force them to sit down and listen to our pilots”, said Elsen.
Starting in the summer of 2022, Ryanair has been hit by multiple strikes from the Belgian based staff, both pilots and cabin crew, but the only response from management was a threat to completely leave the country. In January 2023, strikes by cabin crew forced Ryanair to cancel over 200 flights on New Year’s weekend and the following one.
The personnel have complained multiple times about their wages still not being back to pre-Covid levels and, despite the airline posting a profit of €170 million in the first quarter of 2022 and CEO Michal O’Leary’s salary going up, the staff’s pleas have so far been left without a satisfactory reply.
