RYANAIR signed its first-ever union contract, granting Italian pilots paternity rights leave in a deal the airline hopes to repeat across its network to prevent strikes, reports Bloomberg
RYANAIR signed its first-ever union contract, granting Italian pilots paternity rights leave in a deal the airline hopes to repeat across its network to prevent strikes, reports Bloomberg. The agreement also commits Ryanair to making contributions to national health care and social security funds, said the Italian pilots union ANPAC.
'We welcome this first agreement with our Italian pilots and hope that it will be shortly followed by a similar agreement covering our Irish pilots,' Ryanair personnel chief Eddie Wilson. 'We have invited our UK, German and Spanish unions to meet with us in the coming days.'
Skirmishes with pilots and cabin crew demanding better pay and working conditions have disrupted schedules and angered customers, while threatening Ryanair's industry-leading efficiency.
Italy accounts for 20 per cent of Ryanair's fleet and cockpit crew. Last week, the Dublin-based airline reached the mediated deal with Irish pilots, the group that led a year-long unionisation push.
Crews in Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands last walked off on August 10, disrupting hundreds of flights. Ryanair earnings dropped 20 per cent in the quarter through June and passenger growth last month subsided to the slowest this year.
