On 18 March 2016, the Mons Labour court, sitting in appeal from a decision of the Charleroi Labour Court, delivered its ruling on a case that opposes six flight attendants with their former employer Ryanair. The judgment is a small victory against Ryanair as it recognised that their complaint was admissible before Belgian courts. It however calls on the European court of justice for clarification on the home base concept.

In November 2013, the Charleroi court ruled in favour of the airline as it had declared itself incompetent in this case. The six crew members, defended by the CNE, had therefore decided to file an appeal. In its 32-page ruling, the Mons labour court confirms that there is enough evidence to consider that Belgium might the actual centre of professional activities of these workers: they must live at less than one hour from the airport, they must remain in stand-by at the airport, they always take off and land at Charleroi, even when several rotations are made in one single day, 12 Ryanair airplanes are parked in Charleroi, Ryanair has an office in Charleroi where the management staff is working, etc. For all these reasons, the ruling considers that Belgian courts are competent to know the case and apply Belgian law, in compliance with a European regulation known as the “Rome Convention”.

However, in order to avoid any doubt concerning the implementation and interpretation of this regulation, the labour court believes it is necessary to ask the European Court of Justice to clarify whether the place “where the work is habitually carried out” under the Rome Convention can be considered as the “home base”, as used in another European directive and which is defined as the “location where the crew member normally starts and ends a duty period”.

This question is fundamental for all Ryanair employees all over Europe. Indeed, in case the European Court of Justice responds positively to this interrogation, the Belgian labour law will be applicable for all the staff that is based in Belgium. The company will therefore be required to pay all the hours worked (on the ground, during stopovers, etc.), as well as paid holidays, etc. Currently, since 2012, the newly hired crew members benefit from the Belgian social security system, but are subject to the Irish labour law, which is much less favourable to the employee than the Belgian one.

BeCA welcomes this decision and is looking forward to the clarification from the European Court of Justice, which, we hope, will help clarify the law for all EU member states. As we have always advocated, this issue must be dealt with at the European level once and for all.

Source: CNE