Dutch pilots’ union VNV has announced it will join pilots and crew from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium in a 24/hour strike on Friday 28 September.
Pilots hope to win a pay deal which “guarantees fundamental workers’ rights,” the VNV union said in a statement. “The Dutch demands are modest: Dutch law should be applied; no more bogus self-employment; and sufficient sick pay and pension.”
Unions confirmed earlier this month that the strike would go ahead after a continuing battle with the Irish airline its insistence that contracts are covered by Irish legislation rather than various national labour laws.
The strike starts at 12:00 GMT on Friday 28 September for 24 hours. Cabin crew in Germany may join the action but this is not yet confirmed.
Eight determined unions in the five countries have backed their members strike action.
Italy’s Uiltrasporti and FILT-CGIL, Portugal’s SNPVAC, Belgium’s CNE/LBC, Spain’s SITCPLA and USO, and VNV and FVN in the Netherlands.
Members of these unions employed by Ryanair as pilots and crew will join the strike action.
Ryanair will be sending email confirmation to passengers booked on cancelled flights, offering them the option of making an alternative booking or applying for a refund if no appropriate alternative is given, in which case they can request to be flown with another airline.
Ryanair customers booked for flights on Friday 28th, who have not received an email or SMS, can expect their flight to be operating.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs stated today, “We sincerely apologise to those customers affected by these unnecessary strikes on Friday, which we have done our utmost to avoid, given that we have already offered these unions recognition agreements, Collective Labour Agreements, and a move to local contracts/law in 2019,” said
“These repeated unnecessary strikes are damaging Ryanair’s business and our customer confidence at a time when oil prices are rising strongly, and if they continue, it is inevitable that we will have to look again at our capacity growth this winter and in summer 2019. We hope these unions will see common sense and work with us to finalise agreements for the benefit of our pilots and cabin crew over the coming weeks without further disrupting our customers or our flights.”
So far, the airline is known to have cancelled 190 flights, affecting 30,000 passengers, 8% of its 2,400 scheduled flights are affected.
Jacobs added,“We object to these lurid and inaccurate press headlines which wrongly to refer to ‘travel chaos.’”
There has been some progress with Italian unions after Ryanair announced today, 25th September, that it has signed a Collective Labour Agreement with three of Italy’s cabin crew unions: FIT CISL, ANPAC, and ANPAV.
The agreement means that, as from October 1st, Italian crew will be subject to national laws including legislation covering maternity and paternity leave. There also is a revised pay structure with increased tax free allowances and the introduction of an Italian Pension Scheme.
Ryanair claims to be working on other agreements to encompass local contracts, local law and local taxation as quickly as possible - in 2019, subject to reaching agreements with national unions in each country, including Portugal.
