Ryanair crews 'are very well paid' claims O'Leary

Paul Rees 11 April 2018

Ryanair’s Executive Chairman has threatened the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel with court, complaining of "false allegations."

The workers’ union thinks this a capital idea, “I think it's very good that we're all going to court settle this problem together. I think it was a very good idea and we are prepared for it, for sure," said Luciana Passo.

Ryanair's Michael O’Leary had commented, "I think we can go to court. If the union continues with these false allegations that we have violated Portuguese law, then I think we will have to sue them because we are a big employer, a great investor in Portugal," adding that he was not willing to see Ryanair’s "good name and reputation smeared by false allegations made by a union with representatives from TAP."

During the three-day strike over the Easter period, the union accused Ryanair of violating labour laws in Portugal by replacing striking workers with crews from other countries, on pain of the sack.

"The crews are very well paid," claimed O’Leary who said the company’s response to the strike was "perfectly legal."

"We are one of the largest employers in Portugal, employing 600 pilots and crew, not only in Lisbon, but also in Porto, Faro and Ponta Delgada. We are increasing routes, we are increasing jobs, we are one of the biggest foreign investors in Portugal," said O’Leary, stating also that there is "no basis for a European strike," since Ryanair employs, "very happy crewmembers in Portugal and in Europe."

"The crew are very well paid. They earn between 30 and 40 thousand euros a year, which is more than nurses or teachers in Portugal and we are very grateful that only a handful supported the strike over the Easter weekend and that is why the strike had so little success and we cancelled less than ten percent of our flights," said O’Leary.

"None of our crew wants Portuguese contracts and what we told the union was: if they want some aspects of Portuguese law to be reflected in Irish contracts, come and talk to us and we will do that," said the Ryanair boss.

"We have our cabin crew employed under Irish law because they work for an Irish company. The maternity leave in Ireland is 41 weeks, in Portugal it is 21 weeks," said O’Leary, focusing on one for the union’s gripes.