Ryanair staff "oppressed" 31 January 2005 at 4:20PM in Overseas holidays & travel planning 11 replies 2K views

mattsaze

People should think twice before using low-cost airline Ryanair, and the authorities should be investigating it, according to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).
A website set up by the ITF (www.ryan-be-fair.org) to defend Ryanair employees has attracted over half a million hits and revealed a shocking catologue of misery, low pay and oppression among the airlines staff.
Ryanair employees have been using the web site to talk about the climate of fear that surrounds them - of 12 hour days without breaks and how they even have to pay for the water they need to drink on flights.
As it's run at the moment Ryanair is a disgrace, I think moneysavers should think about using another airline. I personally used to fly Ryanair to Frankfurt Hahn on a regular basis to visit my partners family. I will now be changing to British Midland who fly out of London City Airport direct to Frankfurt International (which is actually in Frankfurt unlike Hahn which is some hour and a halfs drive away). It is a bit more expensive, not that much though, but at least I will be transported by staff who are not bullied and told to think of safety as second place to sales (see site for details).

Fatboy_NSS

Every company will have plenty of employees who grumble about the company. I'm sure Ryanair is no different to any other employer in this respect. There are only a couple dozen people posting on the Ryan Be Fair message board, so I wouldn't say it's a particularly fair representation of the feelings of employees. However I also think you've got the wrong idea of what the site is trying to achieve. It's aim is for better pay and conditions for the staff, whereas any successful boycott of the company would ultimately lead to falling profit and job losses.

Anyways I ain't going to start boycotting Ryanair. Without their super low prices I wouldn't have been able to see anything like as much of Europe as I have done in the last few years.

budgetflyer

oppressed ? Then jack it and get an easy job paying "pop star" money for doing virtually nothing. Then again most of these companies are filing for bankrupcy where as Ryanair are creating more and more jobs in regional destinations.
Almost single handed they have revived Prestwick airport which was on its knees before they moved in.

Trow

I work in an airport - we also work 12 hour days with no proper breaks - and I love it.

Addy

Trow wrote:

I work in an airport - we also work 12 hour days with no proper breaks - and I love it.

lol. I have to say, we live in a reasonably free country. There's nothing making these people STAY working for an oppressive employer!!

They're in charge of their own destiny surely - if enough of them left and found alternative employment - and Ryanair subsequently found it difficult to retain their staff, they'd be forced to review their employment policies!!

mattsaze

I agree many employees grumble about the company they work for, perhaps more so in this country. We do work the longest hours and have the fewest holidays, than in the rest of Europe.
But I feel in this case the situation is different. Ryanair European Pilots Association (REPA) point out that other low-cost airlines including Easy Jet are all committed to social partnership and collective agreements with unions.
The message board is similar to the BBC one where comments are selected by the moderator, hence the small number of comments posted are representive of what people are saying. It is not the sum total of messages posted.
I personally will not fly Ryanair while these issues are outstanding, if a boycott leads to a fall in profits for Ryanair they know what steps to take, in terms of employee relations, to reverse the trend.
As for jacking it in, many cabin crew have contracts that penalise them for doing so eg

Since starting with Ryanair some months ago thankfully on the old contract, I have noticed the complete lack of respect the company has for its staff, and the fact that not one cabin crew I have met likes the company we work for. We are trapped by our contracts: if we leave before one year, we have to pay for uniforms, training and God knows what else.

Isn't it a slippery slope? If you let one company get away with treating its staff in this shoddy way how long will it be before others, realising what they are getting away with, follow suit.

budgetflyer

Training is an expensive game in many industries.Many companies now have these contracts to protect them from employees being trained at the companies expense and shortly afterwards leaving to work for a competitor or start out on their own etc.
I've no doubt Ryanair are probably not the greatest to work for, but to be honest,many of these people probably wouldn't get their foot in the door of the airline industry otherwise.
As a company they are expanding at a terrific rate and Im sure they recognise hard work and good attitude so promotion prospects may be better than at some of the old school scheduled airlines who are infact REDUCING jobs

mattsaze

I agree training is expensive, but isn't it also about investing in a companys future?Surely soemthing must be wrong if a condition of training is that you serve that company for a set period of time, in effect betrothing yourself to them. I can't imagine any flight crew/cabin staff using that training to set themselves up on their own. In addition, if Ryanair was a reasonable employer surely staff would want to stay with them.
I don't believe that giving someone a foot on the ladder excuses any of the behaviour reported on the ryan-be-fair web site. In fact it would seem like they are using that excuse to get away with what they are doing. I think the company, acting in a reasonable and fair manner to its employees, will continue to expand and have a more positive work force.

mattsaze

*bumped* Their campaign still continues!

peterbaker

mattsaze wrote:

I will now be changing to British Midland who fly out of London City Airport direct to Frankfurt International (which is actually in Frankfurt unlike Hahn which is some hour and a halfs drive away). It is a bit more expensive, not that much though, but at least I will be transported by staff who are not bullied and told to think of safety as second place to sales.

Ehm...don't be so sure about that! As Fatboy says, every company in this business seems to have disgruntled employees - he doesn't say why that should be so however...especially when some like Trow love it so much. I loved it too, but some of these employers will not take any criticism especially on safety related issues (which actually includes staff moral if some of you hadn't realised it yet) and will bully dissenters out of their way and if you took a poll amongst the new staff you meet on your proposed alternate route you might not get much of an improvement...what a way to run an aviation business, eh?

mattsaze

I fear to agree you may be correct, although I know with some of these other budget airlines they do have collective agreements with staff unions (Easyjet for example). Wether they're worth the paper they're written on is another matter, however I havn't yet heard of an easyjet-be-fair campaign!