Ryanair signs agreement with Portuguese pilots' union
Ryanair Holdings
€15.20
18:30 22/01/21
Ryanair has signed an agreement with the Portuguese pilot union SPAC, it announced on Friday, which it said would provide for seniority and base transfer agreements to cover all of Ryanair's directly-employed pilots in Portugal.
The Irish low-cost carrier said negotiations with SPAC on a full collective labour agreement under Portuguese Law with local contractors would now commence before the end of October.
Ryanair also signed similar agreements this week with BALPA in the UK and ANPAC in Italy, which it said covered all of its directly-employed UK and Italy-based pilots.
Following negotiations in Madrid this week, the airline said it also expected to sign a recognition agreement with Spanish pilot union SEPLA shortly, which would reportedly pave the way for rapid negotiations on a collective labour agreement under Spanish law.
“These signed agreements with our pilot unions in Portugal, the UK, Italy and shortly in Spain, demonstrate the considerable progress we're making in concluding union agreements with our people in our major EU markets,” said Ryanair’s chief people officer Eddie Wilson.
“The recent wave of airline failures in Europe including Primera Air, Cobalt, Air Azur, and Small Planet, as well as base closures [and] cuts announced by many of Europe's major airlines in response to higher oil prices and lower air fares, have given a significant stimulus to these union negotiations over recent weeks.”
Wilson claimed Ryanair's pilots and cabin crew recognised that they enjoyed better pay, better rosters, and significantly better job security than their counterparts at many other EU airlines, despite the recent widespread disputes between the airline and its staff and contractors.
“For our part, [we] are recognising and working with unions to conclude agreements which address the major issues of concern to our pilots and cabin crew in all our major EU markets.
“I expect that these agreements in Spain, and Portugal in particular, will encourage the cabin crew unions in both those countries to remove competitor airline employees who have been blocking progress, and to quickly conclude cabin crew agreements in those countries, as that's what our Portuguese and Spanish cabin crew are now demanding,” Wilson added.