Gaurdian article on airline morale

[Spartacan]

Timely piece on terms and conditions in the airline industry as costs are cut.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian_jobs_and_money/story/0,3605,962183,00.html

Two interesting quotes on the low cost sector:

"No-frills airlines are building their businesses on the back of reducing the terms and conditions of their people, and on the back of a crisis in the market" claims Patrick O'Keefe, the TGWU's acting secretary for air transport. And here, the award for the trade unions' least-favourite airline must surely go to Ryanair.

and

Mr Loader also felt that a 12-month renewable contract as a training captain might risk the possibility of being pressurised into failing certain pilots as unfit to fly, or risk losing his job. "I have definitely made the right decision not to work for Ryanair," he says.


Why would this Captain have such a concern? Anyone care to comment?

[Dirty Mach]

Actually, Are Ryanair reducing their terms and conditions?
They certainly have a questionable advantage over the other UK operators in that they pretend not to be one, and use the Dublin base as a flag of convenience. They can paint their planes funny and get sponsorship from that and they seem to be able to bend rules with impunity.
BUT their pilots all seem very happy, are pretty well paid. 5 on 3 off stable rosters, and their pilots do not appear to be leaving in droves.

should not the unions be looking more closely at airlines that were not traditionally low cost but are re-styling themselves? they are trying to cut as many costs as possible while seeming to retain a top heavy management structure.

[kenoco]

I myself don't work for ryanair but i have other french and spanish friends who did and do but hate it a very lot,5 on and 3 off very rarely happens,the conditions now are totally bad compared to a while back,u must pay for everything------swedish id's,half a uniform,short leave,leave declined a lot,and a very low basic pay,and the most of the first officers are young,new boys just out of the flying schools in lots of debt paying thousands of english pounds to Ryanair just for an interview and maybe a job.Also Ryanair has the most rules under Irish law which is easier than C.C.A.More info soon ,,M xx.

[Wig Wag]

The statement about being worried about 'of being pressurised into failing certain pilots as unfit to fly, or risk losing his job' is a bit baffling.

Their could be two sentiments here.

Either the airline is worried about the ability of its training Captains to uphold a particular standard or there is political pressure to weed out individual employees.

Clearly there was some perceived pressure the pilot was worried about that was not present in his previous airline.

An odd statment to make to the press at the very least.

[HZ123]

What connection does the TGWU have with flight crew and how relevant can the 'air transport' commentators remarks be.

They would do better to consentrate on the many ground staff that are members whose morale is also very low having been regularly shafted. I am sure BALPA are more than a match for any management a comment I cannot make for the TGWU representations.