 |
|
|
The airline’s employment practices could jeopardise passenger safety say Ryanair Pilots Group (RPG). The group was formed by RyanAir pilots in response to continueing attacks on their employment terms and conditions. The company has refused to recognise them and ignores any attempts at collective bargaining.
 However, all the airlines pilots have received a warning letter telling them that any action such as signing a letter to the Irish Aviation Authority that regulates Ryanair, advising the regulator of their concerns for passenger safety; would make them guilty of “gross misconduct” and “liable for dismissal”.
The letter, drawn up by the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG), warns that the “confusing, uncertain and unpredictable employment situation” at Ryanair was becoming “an increasing distraction in daily flight operations”. It added that it was causing “stress and worry” for pilots and had implications for passenger safety.
The airline’s chief pilot Ray Conway Ryanair responded to the letter:
“If the Ryanair Pilot Group want to make inaccurate or false claims about non-safety issues they are free to do so, but we will not allow Ryanair’s safety to be defamed by this pilots’ union. Please note that any Ryanair pilot who participates in this so-called safety petition will be guilty of gross misconduct and will be liable for dismissal.”
According to reports in this weekend’s Independent:
“The RPG organised the letter amid concerns that the airline was making the majority of its pilots self-employed. Under the scheme, pilots sign a contract binding them to fly exclusively for Ryanair – but not as employees.
The pilots are then paid for the work they do but have to pay for all their own expenses, including uniforms, identity cards, transport and hotel accommodation. The contracted pilots have no pension scheme or medical insurance unless they set it up themselves.”
The newspaper has previously reported on poor conditions faced by Ryanair’s cabin crew, who are made to take three months unpaid leave a year, are not paid to be on call, and have to pay £360 for their uniform.
 One Ryanair pilot said that the company was protected because they could claim that pilots had a legal and moral obligation not to fly if they do not think they are capable. They added:
“People are human and if you’re not going to be paid [if you don’t fly] you might think ‘I can do this, I’m fine. I’ll just get on with it’. You should not have a safety culture based on fear.”
David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine and an expert on aviation, said:
“Ryanair are pushing their luck on human factors when they employ pilots like a warlord employs mercenaries. There is the worry that if they are self-employed that might place additional pressures on them to work even if, for any number of reasons, they might not feel entirely fit to do so.”
The RPG has now written to the Irish Aviation Authority to express its concerns over RyanAir’s threat of dismissal, says the Independent newspaper, quoting from the letter:
“[We are] extremely concerned by some of the rhetoric used in this memo and also by the implicit attempt to constrain the reporting of safety related concerns,” they said in a letter to Kevin Humphreys, Director of Safety Regulation.
“Voicing concerns about safety and petitioning any government agency about those concerns is legal, necessary and in line with every pilot’s legal obligations to report those kinds of concerns when they arise.”
Source: The Independent
|
|
|
Designed, Hosted and Maintained by Union Safety Services
|
