Originally Posted by
dirk85
Safety culture? If this is fresh air compared to EK, I start to be scared for you guys.
Calling fatigues is simply not an option in Ryanair. Either you are sick or you refuse to fly, and get sacked.
The 4 cabin crews that wrote this letter were fired the day after. Have a good read.
Good morning
As you are probably informed already we are the PMI crew that overnight in CGN and got a meeting to DUB because we refused to fly on captain discretion. We want you to be aware of our situation and everything that happened between the 08/07/18 and 09/07/18.
“On the 08/07/18 we were operating a MAD-CGN flight starting from PMI base (12:15z departure). Due tu lack of personal in PMI and slots in MAD we knew already before leaving PMI for the last two sectors that we would have been on captain discretion. Despite all that we left anyway.
We landed in CGN 20:48z plus we had to wait an extra 20min to be able to disembark the PRM.
As procedure the captain asked the all crew if they were willing to fly back on discretion. The First Officer agreed on doing that but us, as cabin crew we all agreed that we were not fit to fly anymore.
The captain understood our decision and called the duty pilot to explain him our situation and the duty pilot understood our decision as well and told us that was our legal right to do that. He than informed that captain that someone from DUB would contact him.
The captain then received a call from a manager in DUB asking him to force his crew to operate the flight back. The captain refused to do that and let the manager speak to the cabin crew individually.
The first cabin crew who spoke with her was the N2.
The manager told him if he was refusing to fly he then answer that he was not refusing to fly but he was unfit to fly and that if something happened safety wise he wouldn’t be able anymore physically or mentally to deal with the situation. She then repeat that he was refusing to fly so he repeat the same answer. She than asked which day was for him and how was possible that he was fatigue on his 4th working day. He state that he has been working three days plus the twelve and more hours of work that he was doing that day. The manager than said that if he was tired was just because he was not taking good care of himself and that he was disrespecting the passengers by refusing to operate the flight back because they wouldn’t be able to fly to PMI because of him. He than replied that it would be disrespectful to the passengers if he would operate a flight when he’s not fit to and not mentally or physically capable anymore to guaranty the safety of the flight and the passengers.
The second cabin crew who spoke with her was the N4. The cabin crew explained to her the situation telling that she was already flying on the day off as a FLEXI day and she was not fit to operate any flight anymore as it would be against safety procedures. Then the manager replied putting pressure on the N4 asking her if she was willing to disappoint the passenger for just 15min of discretion. (At the beginning when we landed we were expecting 15min of discretion that already at that time after all the waiting where increased).
She then spoke to the N1 asking her to convince her crew to operate the flight back, so she asked again the crew and we all agree together once agin that the flight wouldn’t be safe anymore if operated by us because we were not fit to fly anymore and also there was no water suitable for drinking available onboard for neither passengers or cabin crew. So she report to the manager the decision and the manger intimidated the all crew by telling her that if they would refuse to operate the flight back they would be scheduled for a meeting in DUB the day after.
The phone call ended with the crew taking the intimidation and still refusing for safety reason to operate the flight back.
The captain called operations asking to fly back empty as the flight crew still felt fit to fly. Operations informed the captain that DUB wanted the crew to overnight in CGN and go to DUB the day after for a meeting. Then the crew left the aircraft and went to the crew room to call crew control to know the details about the overnight and the flights for the day after.
We were informed that our flight to DUB the day after would have been at 05:55z to MAN and then from there to DUB at 11:00z. After receiving all this informations and knowing that neither the hotel or the lift to this one was arrange we were questioning to crew control about our rest period. We got as answer that the flights and the meeting in DUB the day after were not consider as duty so the proper rest time was not needed.
After being waiting a at the airport for at least another hour we decide to call crew control again as calculating all the time to reach the hotel and the time to come back we had left only 4h sleeping. We got once again the same answer and we’ve also been told that we could refuse to come to the meeting but that may had repercussions. At this point we just gave up and after waiting another 15min we reach the hotel in CGN at 02:15L.
I am not going to get into a debate about the merits of the above mentioned event.
I will start by saying that the cabin crew are not treated as well and work for a pittance. It’s not a job I would do.
I would also also say that this job is not for all especially after working for a full service airline. But the comment was about safety culture.
I will therefore say the following;
1) it is Captains discretion and from the above it seems to have been poorly managed by the Captain.
2)whilst not doubting the report this is one side of the coin
3) my experience has been entirely different in the company
4) I also understand that management have a role to play. I doubt the 15min discretion would have had any impact, and if it did then they were not fit to fly in the for their assigned duty and should have called sick
5) whilst I have no information about the above, like many other rumors on this network and elsewhere when stories of firings take place I take these with a pinch of salt.
I stand by by what I wrote that the Safety culture and approach Flt Ops Mgmt I have witnessed are an immensely vast improvement to what I saw in EK in well over a decade there.
Again best if luck.