Ryanair announced it will embrace unions and negotiate on issues that matter to their pilots. Is this what is happening right now?
Yes, if you believe what Ryanair says. But seemingly not so certain if you look at the reality on the ground. After its cancellation crisis, last autumn, and imminent strike threats in December 2017, Ryanair started to reach out to several unions across Europe.
Since then, it reached general ‘recognition agreements’ with pilot unions in the UK and Italy. These agreements are largely procedural in nature, describing how the airline and its pilot union Company Councils interact. They do not touch on any detailed terms and working conditions. These still need to be negotiated.
However, apart from these recognition agreements and from negotiations progressing in Italy, in most other cases, very little progress is being made, and some of the talks are by now completely stuck. Ryanair is portraying the unions as making unacceptable demands, continues to refer to its own unilateral pay increase already offered to individual pilots, but seems not to see that pilots aren’t just interested in pay matters but in a much wider range of issues that affect their working life. Money is not the priority at this stage, it is the many non-pay related issues that matter most to Ryanair pilot representatives and their unions.
The rosy picture drawn by Ryanair in the media on their relationship with unions still needs to be backed up by tangible progress on the many issues of concern to their pilots.
How are negotiations with pilots progressing?
After over 30 years of an openly anti-union attitude, it appears Ryanair still has a lot to learn. It needs to show real commitment to engage in talks not only on their own narrow agenda – e.g. focused mainly on some specific pay-related issues – but on the many issues Ryanair pilots are interested in.
One of the main priorities at this stage is the need for a network-wide and transparent ‘Master Seniority List’ for all Ryanair pilots across Europe, covering issues such as annual leave, base transfers within and beyond national borders, promotion & upgrades, etc. Equally important is the need to give all pilots contracts that are governed by the laws of the country where they are based, incl. jurisdiction in that country, as well as obtaining a Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) that is enforceable under the national rules of the country of the pilot’s base.
Finally, most other airlines leave it entirely to the union to decide who participates in meetings. Ryanair doesn’t. It tries to decide who sits on the other side of the table, resulting in time and focus being lost from the concrete discussions that need to take place.
