Ryanair faces call for boycott in Norway

By Ian Taylor

Ryanair has been accused of employing cabin crew on “slave contracts” in Norway.

The accusation by a Norwegian trade union follows a claim by two former cabin crew members who are suing Ryanair over their dismissal.

Norway’s Parat union described the flight attendants’ terms and conditions as “a contract of slavery”. The crew allege there was a “culture of fear” at the carrier.

Ryanair hit back by accusing its former crew members of making “false claims” and the union of trying to distract attention from its role in negotiating job cuts at SAS Scandinavian Airlines.

The former crew members released details of their contracts, causing a public furore in Norway and leading to calls for a boycott of the airline.

Ryanair leased the crews from agencies which employ the staff on Irish contracts despite them being based at Rygge airport outside Oslo.

Norwegian media reported the contracts included the following provisions:

Employees had to pay for training and uniforms
Employment could be terminated at any time, with from 0-14 days’ notice.
Crew were required to pay a €200 fee to resign in the first 15 months of the contract.
Hourly pay was set at the equivalent of $21 an hour in flight, with no extra pay for weekends or holidays.
There was no sick pay.
Crew were entitled to 20 days holiday, booked well in advance but subject to cancellation if Ryanair required staff to work.
Employees were required to take at least four weeks’ unpaid leave a year.
Crew were required to be on standby for work without payment and be able to report within an hour.
Participation in union action was grounds for immediate dismissal.
Contract terms were to remain confidential, with violation grounds for dismissal.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary dismissed the claims and described the former flight attendants as “unsuccessful and dismissed”.

He told the Norwegian press: “They just invented these false claims some six months after they were dismissed.” O’Leary argued no one was forced to work for Ryanair.

He said there was a waiting list for jobs and suggested the crew were “supported by labour organisations in the process of agreeing thousands of job cuts and 17% pay cuts in SAS”.

O’Leary added: “We’re an Irish airline operating Irish-regulated aircraft. Our employees are employed under Irish contracts.”

However, following questions in parliament, Norway’s foreign minister Espen Bart Eide was quoted on Friday saying he would not fly on Ryanair until the issues were resolved.

Questioned by MPs, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: “The government fights social dumping, but it’s extra complicated with the airline industry.”

Ryanair’s new security feature blocks agent sales

Nov 18, 2011 08:00AM GMT

Ryanair has made what is being seen as the most aggressive move yet to prevent travel agents booking its flights using the screen-scraping method.

A new verification step has been added to the Ryanair booking process, identical to the system many sites already utilise to ensure the inquiry is being made by a genuine human being rather than a machine.

It is understood the new procedure, that requires the customer to enter a unique code, was introduced this week. Agents could still book flights manually, but taking large numbers of flights by screen-scraping would be impossible.

On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott said the move could present a major challenge for a number of UK-based dynamic packaging agencies, some of whom he estimated are up to 60% reliant on Ryanair flights.

He believes Ryanair may be unaware of exactly how much business comes from the trade and, despite chief executive Michael O’Leary’s well documented antagonism to travel agents, may come to regret this latest attempt to cut them out.

“They could lose 30% of their business,” he said. “It’s a question of who blinks first; the trade or Ryanair.”

The Irish budget carrier has fought and lost a number of legal cases around Europe in its attempts to prevent third party sales, although many firms are able to get around attempts to stifle screen scraping by using companies based outside of the EU.

Endacott described the move by Ryanair as “deeply anti-consumer”.