All of the Buzz Stansted pilots were offered contracts with a company called Crewlink (based in Dublin and up to now providing cabin crew to its main client Ryanair - draw your own conclusions) and that we would be contracted to provide our services to Ryanair.These are 3 year fixed term contracts, and the Buzz pilots were told that there would be no permanent jobs with Ryanair itself until the BALPA/TUPE issues had been resolved later on in the year. It is Ryanair's intention (so they say) to offer us all permanent positions once this has happened, although who knows what will happen if BALPA recognition becomes a reality. Approx 15 pilots declined the contract, and are due to leave when Buzz is wound up on 31st October. The conversion courses are being started from Monday onwards, so expect to see a few more new faces in the STN crewroom in the weeks and months to come.
As an aside, when Ryanair bought Buzz back in April 2003, we were all put on new contracts with the Ryanair standard 12 months probation period. Our new contracts specify another 12 months probation, and obviously if and when we get a full Ryanair contract then that will stipulate another 12 month probation period. This means that apart from a short period of approximately 5 months earlier this year,that we will have been on probation (and therefore the company can get rid of us for just about any reason by giving us a week's notice) from April 2003 until sometime in 2006 !!!
