All Ryanair top management returned to pre-Covid terms & conditions already 15 months ago! During the same time, pilots within the Ryanair Group continued to make huge financial sacrifices due to the 20% pay cuts forced upon them under duress at the beginning of the pandemic. Today, pilots sent an open letter to management, urging immediately return all Ryanair Group workforces to pre-pandemic terms and conditions.
Dear Michael, Dear all,
We are writing to you as the Ryanair Group pilot body noted the clear and strong signal towards a 100% recovery after the pandemic given by our Group CEO Mr. Michael O’Leary’s (MOL) return to pre-Covid 19 terms and conditions.
What came as a great astonishment to the Ryanair Transnational Pilot Group, after analysing the financial figures of FY2022, is that all Ryanair top management returned to pre-Covid terms and conditions already 15 months ago, i.e. in April 2021!
During the same time, pilots within the Ryanair Group continued to make huge financial sacrifices due to the 20% pay cuts forced upon them under duress at the beginning of the pandemic.
To make matters worse, especially when considering the above crucial financial data, during the now very controversial ‘pay restoration’ negotiations with some Pilot bodies this full restoration to pre-pandemic terms and conditions was denied by the current management. For all the above-said facts, especially given MOL’s recent return to pre-pandemic terms and conditions, the most obvious solution being both decent and beneficial to all parties, would be a return to 100% pre-pandemic terms and conditions, adjusted to the current inflation, for ALL Ryanair Group employees!
One just needs to draw a parallel with Southwest Airline Management’s handling of the post-pandemic recovery, with even bonus payments being allocated to pilots to bolster and reinforce the “win/win” and “sharing the wealth” philosophy, carrying along the late Herb Kelleher’s legacy in this extremely successful low-cost carrier.
Closer to home, an identical parallel can be drawn when we see that the management of European low-cost carrier easyJet, leisure operators TUI, Jet 2 and majors such as Virgin Atlantic (to mention just a few as there are many more) have also in part returned their pilot workforce back to pre-pandemic/full terms and conditions and in some cases even paying their valued and loyal workforce extra pay to cater for cost of living increases.
This type of positive company behavior builds loyalty of employees towards their respective airlines, contributing to workforce experience retention by dedicating one’s professional life to one employer with a mindset of spending an entire career with such airlines.
Yet here, we are forced to note the current Ryanair Group management’s stride to hold on to their profit-orientated mindset without sharing even part of that profit with the very dedicated professional pilot body which is crucial to obtain that huge profit.
This distorted message of unequal treatment sent by Ryanair management to your pilots is generating great financial hardship and huge frustration whilst greatly hampering the participation of the pilot workforce towards the company’s potential expansion, putting in danger Company development and solid financial results.
In conclusion, considering the above, and in order to secure a long-term social peace, the Ryanair Transnational Pilot Group would urge the current Ryanair management to immediately return all Ryanair Group workforces to pre-pandemic terms and conditions taking into account the rising inflation.
Very best regards,
Ryanair Transnational Pilot Group
on behalf of Member Associations
https://www.eurocockpit.be/news/open-letter-michael-olearys-return-pre-covid-terms-and-conditions