BeCA Letter to Management following Darrell Hugues’s message on the crew extranet

Dear colleagues,

Further to our message on 9 May, we wanted to give you a short update from our conference call with Darrell Hughes (Ryanair’s Director of People), that took place on 11 May. The call was of informative purpose and no negotiation took place.

Firstly, BeCA/CC want to assure you that we recognise the unprecedented times facing our industry and we are willing to work with Ryanair to find workable solutions to enable the company to get through this crisis and at the same time protect jobs.

During this video conference, Ryanair clearly explained that they don’t know (or don’t want to say much about) what will happen in the coming months and the coming year(s) but they want long term 20% pay cuts anyway and they asked for our reply/proposal within 48hrs (deadline was therefore today). When asked, Darrell Hughes confirmed that no guarantees could be given against collective dismissals. At no moment during this call have they offered a single relevant document explaining their plans for our future. The only words coming back time after time were: COSTS REDUCTIONS, IMPROVED FLEXIBILITY and INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY!

The time frame is also unreasonable. They not only appear to be rushing us into making cuts although the Belgium unemployment scheme could be run until the end of September, and could possibly be extended for a longer period in one way or another, but they also want these cuts to last for 5 years with no guarantee that original conditions will return. This initial position appears to be Ryanair’s attempt to take advantage of the crisis to lower our terms and conditions (for which we all fought so hard) in the long run, irrespective of whether the effects of this crisis are over or not. Also, consider that on 18 May there is the announcement of the Financial Year 2020 of Ryanair Holdings plc Earnings Release in which they have to come with good news.

We believe that after several months of operations, we will all have a much better picture of the impact this crisis has on the aviation industry. The CEO has taken a 50% pay cut until 31 March 2021. Surely any agreement we reach should be reviewed at that time.

It is therefore a non-sense to ask for long term pay cuts based on unknown factors when flexible alternatives exist allowing to achieve costs reductions, operational flexibility and job security during a long enough period to gather all the needed information. Then and only then, if required, could we make long term enlightened decisions based on facts.

For all these reasons and in response to a message by Darrell Hugues on the crew extranet, BeCA sent him a letter yesterday explaining that we cannot make any concrete proposal right now, as a lot of information is still missing. We have also stressed that the approach Ryanair is taking, i.e. non transparent and manipulative, to address the situation is wrong and should rather be based on a good cooperation between management and employees. We have also asked him to reply to our questions from our letter dated 7/05.

Finally, for those affected with the registration onto the Belgian Social Security system, this is being closely monitored and according to the feedback we are getting the problems are gradually being resolved.

In the meantime we wish that you all stay safe.

We will keep you informed.

Best regards,

Your BeCA RYR Coordination Team