Failure is a word that no-one likes to hear. Especially not if it applies to a major European airline. But it is the word that perhaps best describes the relations between Ryanair management and its pilots right now. Management fails to honor its commitment to “talk” to its own pilots, refuses to acknowledge their call for collective bargaining and transparent negotiations, and rejects the existence of grassroot initiatives such as the European Employee Representative Council (EERC) – a body set up by Ryanair pilots from across Europe. But the story doesn’t end here: this management failure is not a reason for the pilots to give up.
To achieve these aims, many hundreds of pilots joined pilot associations and decided to establish Company Councils under the umbrella of ECA Member Associations across Europe. These Company Councils – composed of Ryanair Captains and First Officers, directly employed and contractors – do now exist in 7 European countries: Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Spain & the Netherlands – and others will follow. All 7 formally notified Ryanair management about these Company Councils and invited management to engage in negotiations on new CLAs. And all 7 received a rebuttal from Ryanair. Yet another management failure…
The importance of such Company Council cannot be underestimated, as they hold the keys to direct negotiations at national level. These structures are designed to facilitate and formalize negotiations – and this in line with national legal and social requirements and protections. They also ensure fair and transparent deals that would apply to all pilots in a given country (rather than on a selective base-by-base level), and this within a wider European framework set by the pilots themselves.
