The New Year is off to a bad start for some Ryanair employees. 75 crew members will be fired this Wednesday, January 8th, from the Ryanair air base at Faro airport. This had led to a complaint being made by the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPVAC).
Tomorrow is the day that the employees’ contracts end, a bond that will not be renewed.
"Crewlink, the agency which recruits and contracts cabin crew for the Ryanair airline, will stop working at the Faro Base tomorrow, causing the dismissal of crew members who have worked for the company for over 10 years," explains the Union.
Ryanair's Faro base was set to shut down due to monetary losses the airline claims to experience during the autumn and winter months.
However, the low-cost carrier did a “U-turn” on their decision, choosing to keep the base open, but still announcing back in that they intended to lay off approximately 100 workers, a situation that is set to come to pass tomorrow.
According to SNPVAC, the 55 remaining Ryanair cabin crew working at the base “were coerced by the airline into signing an addendum to their contract, which waived subsidies and retroactive payments up to November 2018, which is still the case and in many cases led most to give up their entire career.”
Some “have been working for more than 10 years at the base in Faro», according to the union. "All those who did not accept these conditions were penalized for four months with an 80% cut in their salary under the Intermittent Contracts Act," they add.
Moreover, the Union revealed that it has tried unsuccessfully throughout the last through months to meet with the company in order to solve the numerous issues that have arisen, seeking to protect and cover all cabin crew based in Portugal. The SNPVAC is also awaiting a meeting with the DGERT - Directorate General for Employment and Labour Relations.
