Ryanair cabin crew will go on a 6-day strike just as the summer begins, starting on San Juan, and the blame is the company's they claim.
The actual days that the 1,200 cabin crew (TCP) that Ryanair has on its books are going to be on strike are the 24th, 25th, 26th and 30th, and then the 1st and 2nd of July.
According to their workers’ union (USO) at a press conference in Madrid yesterday, the airline still hasn’t bothered to sign a collective agreement with them; i.e. the agreed working conditions between a company and its workforce. The union and Ryanair have spent the last eight months in negotiations.
Union representatives claim that Ryanair has no collective agreement in any of the countries in which they operate. They have minor accords in Belgium, Italy and Portugal, however they never stick to them, say the USO representatives.
“Ryanair has problems everywhere and with all branches of their workforce because they never honour what they sign,” said the USO in reference to the condition under which their pilots fly. Company pilots, however, are not coming out in strike in sympathy with their cabin crews.
Ryanair has already lost a case before the courts where a judicial decision annulled the company’s salary cuts at the beginning of the pandemic.
The strikes will take place in the company’s ten operating bases in Spain: Madrid, Málaga, Barcelona, Alicante, Sevilla, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Girona, Santiago de Compostela and Ibiza. The days included in the strike action will be 24 hours, thus affecting all their flights on each day.
Obviously, they will have to provide a minimum service by law but the terms of this service have still not been made public. If their demands are not met, the USO has not ruled out increasing the number of strike days during the rest of the summer, in the rest of Europe as well as Spain.
It should be noted that the airline does still not recognises the standard 22 days of holiday a year, which is something that all employees are entitled to in Spain. The 14 public holidays are similarly absent, as well. In other words, Ryanair still continues to ignore Spanish work regulations, according to the ISO.
So, what happens if your flight is affected by this strike action? The Spanish citizen consumer rights organisation, Facua, points out that passengers have the right to receive at least 250 euros in compensation and the return of the cost of the ticket, according to Article Seven within the European Law 261/2004.
According to a sentence handed down by the European Court of Justice in April 2018, strike action is not considered “extraordinary circumstances” which would give them the right to not pay out to passengers on cancelled flights.
However, an airline does not have to pay compensation if they have informed passengers at least two weeks before the take-off time for the flight. An airline can offer, in this case an alternative arrangement that does not involve a departure more than two hours before the cancelled flight.
(News: Spain)
I agree the greed of the shareholders of Ryanair constantly pushing to maximise profits so that the shareholders can gain the most.
P.s. Ryanair is owned by instutional investors, in other words pension funds. So the pensioner in the street is the greedy one.
Ryan Air. Hmm. Don’t they charge the staff for water and food on flights. ?? Also took away staff seating. So running with less staff now.
Should the staff and managers be wearing rodeo outfits and Stetsons. Although it’s not the staffs fault. Mr Greed is the key. !!