That's damage control and to prevent further embarrasment. The communications department now answers on his behalf that they don't respond to 'rumours or speculation', 'lies spread by competing companies and trade unions' and so on.

Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, Section 20

This link mentions holiday pay. We are told that the 'contractors' are forced to take a month off, unpaid, and often not of their choosing. Given that an employee is entitled to a months holiday pay based upon an average of a month's income, I would have thought this would be sufficient incentive for contractors to establish once 7 for all their true status. Not to mention all the other worker's right, including sick day.

Chatting to a few FR guys has confirmed that leave is being allocated to their standard rest days without any notice, request or explanation. The view seems to be that they can now claim all leave was allocated. If they give the guys days off the roster cannot be covered. The question is whether those allocated December as their month off start seeing that leave unilaterally re-assigned to November and find Dec holiday plans up in smoke.... sounds like it’s “always getting better”. The mind boggles, pilots are leaving because they’re not happy, so they give them further reason to be upset. Perhaps Ryanair’s calculation is it’s better to shaft your staff and face the consequences later than publicly face up to more un-crewed flights?

If they can't cover the December roster, which has already been reduced with the previous cancellations, they are quite frankly screwed for next summer. The walls are crumbling.

I once worked for an outfit where we had more than the legal minimum days off per month. The normal days off allocation was not in any contract, it was just the accepted norm. Guess what, when demand became greater than supply the normal days off were reduced to legal minimum. No contract, no union. The further insult was when our 4 day stop over in Africa became 2 'duty/rest days' & 2 days off. Usually, after a weeks duty away from home we'd have 3-4 days off back home to transition back to European flying. As there was no jet lag involved we found ourselves back on roster after 2 days back home. Lots of grumbling, but nothing to be done. Morale was in the toilet. Wedges often have thin ends. Beware.

Contractor Conundrum
 

The contractors find themselves as both the employer and employee in their employment equation. I don’t think this has happened by chance.

Those employed directly that have been unilaterally allotted Annual Leave days without 30 days notice are entitled to have the days returned to them as set out by the Act.

This practice is common in the industry outside the civilised West where workers have some legal protections.
For instance, Hong Kong Airlines currently contracts 28 days AL to pilots. If you request three or four days AL in a month they will roster you for a longhaul flight finishing the day before your requested Leave, and bingo, the three or four days ‘rest and recovery’ you earned is now shown as AL. In effect the employee pilot subsidises the airlines AL budget. Daylight robbery. Perfectly legal.

And no such thing as ‘earned weekends’ on AL either.
Office staff work Monday to Friday, and if they take 5 days AL they automatically get the Sat/Sun off as well (and they get to sleep in their own beds every night the rest of the time).
Meanwhile aircrew, who’s lives are constantly disrupted by 24/7 rostering, are deprived of the Sat/Sun attached to AL (no such thing as ‘the weekend’ for aircrew), thus being effectively discriminated against compared to the Admins (who may, coincidentally, write those rosters).

The reality is that any business in the western world is disconnected from its operational interface. MBA programs the world over preach that it matters little what the business actually does, lower unit cost by manipulation, outsourcing and even contract is the 'conventional wisdom'.

HR is the 'industry' feeding from this structure, designing rosters a small part of their vocation; they spend every waking hour circumventing contracts, creating conflict and generating adversity. It is this way they wedge themselves into remedies, thus ensuring their own survival..

Have seen it in a few corporations in my time..Whilst Mr O'Leary and his business model has plumbed new lows, they are not alone in their endeavours!

The MBA's aren't that smart though are they, because they only have to look at SWA to realise "there is another way".

But the problem is, when you don't buy into or believe in the business and consider it merely a stepping stone to "greater things", you can trash it during your tenure, move on, and are insulated from the ramifications or consequences....

About AL, each airline do their own stuff. If pilots would not accept this :mad: they would not do it ...
A friend of mine in Austria, if ask 6 days holiday, he will have days on then 5days holidays then days on, I was choked when he told me that.

In my airline if I ask 5 days holiday, I m sure to have 2 days off 5 days holiday 2 days off.

An other friend of mine in France, if he ask at least 3 days holiday, he ll have 3 days off 3 days holiday 3 days off.

The basic should be at least like my airline.

The MBA is nothing more than cookie cutter.
Horizon Air also among the 'smartest guys in the room' in a great self inflicted upper cut...


https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...ilot-shortage/

Push the unit cost of labour towards zero, divide and conquer on the way...Pure genius! Only problem for these morons is as labour unit cost approaches the zero bound, revenue intercepts at zero too! Clearly though O'Leary is the grand wizard in aviation

You sir are absolutely correct.

SWA have been only doing it consistently for decades and I might add Rob Fyfe did a pretty good job of treating people with respect at Air New Zealand

This is why an effective Union is necessary. Unscrupulous employers will always exploit Terms & Conditions if allowed.

In the current climate, pilots need to start being more picky, and instead of just looking at bottom lines (pay and promotions) when choosing a job, have a closer look at all the underhand ways they rip you off in AL, Days Off, Staff Travel, Duty Travel, Med and Lic Cover etc. In the excitement of getting a new job these things are glossed over. But once you’re online they are the things that will constantly piss you off and make you hate the place.

Same Old Same Old!
 

Annual leave for employees, not contractors, on days off . Did not believe it until I saw it! Fantastic!
Floated out and DH on day off without being asked , all the old tricks.
But now with a friendly smile.
No pay increase in sight for anyone.
Pilots walking out, voting with the feet , as that is the ONLY way they can VOTE!
1000 new pilots hired since January, seriously Dude! 999 of them Cadets.

Its wetlease time this summer.

Pilots own the endorsements and the hours...

It is so unnecessary that employees that by their nature are long term and not readily transferable are considered something to be exploited for their lack of movement, rather than savoured as valuable long term assets.

There are companies that understand the strategic asset that pilots are to an airline. In times to come, businesses will return to a more accommodating (partner) approach with their employees, but with huge investments in adversarial models, to a hammer every problem is a nail.

Ryanair isn't hurting enough yet.

It is indeed the “same old, same old” when people accept to be sent out of base and DH’ed somewhere on their days off! Dont answer your phone, and if you do, tell them to foxtrot oscar.

Did you ever consider that RYR might be making things worse for a reason.? Maybe the cancellation of leave / issued leave on days off is all part of a plan. Make the environment as toxic as possible for the next few weeks until the arrival of the ' Messiah' (PB) from Malaysian. He arrives and with a wave of his arm instantly makes some of the nasty things go away ....." and if you'll just trust me and sign the agreement ...." Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing ....

Good plan, except that PB is a wolf in :mad: clothing.

Hey Ryanair, how are the rosters looking? You can't fire 59 captains at a time and replace them with 999 cadets.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/1107/91...-collectively/

Ryanair said it was "inundated" with applications from pilot union members in Monarch, Air Berli,n and many other facing redundancy or pay cuts because of the failure of those pilot unions,

From the rte news article. Is RYR saying that the unions were responsible in some way for the demise of Monarch & Air Berlin? Wow!

I was sat on the apron at Faro mid-morning today idly chatting with the handling agent about the 5 Ryanair 737s parked on the line. She told me that their whole morning 'shift' had been binned a few days back and an airport that used to have 30 Ryanair movements a day was now handling 11. It was certainly unusual seeing 5 aircraft with doors closed and nothing going on.

Saw four parked up going nowhere in Tenerife on Tuesday lunchtime too. Winter is peak season for the Canary Islands from most of Europe, provided you have the pilots to operate them of course.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t FR park planes up in the winter in places where parking is cheaper? Could this not be another reason why you are seeing planes at those places?

Not an FR pilot, so I am speculating.

Six this morning. They appear to have binned the entire morning schedule, kicking off about lunchtime.

Parking planes in winter in FAO and TFS is standard practice. I was in both places several times over the last few winters and they've always parked a few there. They rotate them through those places as they are cheaper to park them there than elsewhere.

From personal experience, last year there were no airplanes parked in TFS whatsoever. On the contrary, extra planes were brought in to cover the extra flights for the winter.

Ok - fair enough but two winters ago I was there for a couple of weeks out of base and there were at least two sitting towards the westerly end of the apron unused. I know because we ended up using one after going tech.

Faro has in the past had at least 4 parked up on the easterly side of the apron.

This isn't 'parked-up' aircraft. These aircraft are flying, after lunchtime. Call me a bluff-old-traditionalist, but giving an airframe maybe two sectors a day doesn't make (Ryanair) economic sense.

IAA is rotten and in bed with Ryanair. No wonder so many airlines want to have an Irish AOC... There should be consequences!

not surprising.
Hope Europe will punish this country. :yuk:

Well, well...... not short of pilots. Why did I just speak to an FR pilot today who had an email from his agency asking if he’d like to give up his month off next year. Upon enquiry as to the details of such offer he was told that no it wasn’t a reallocation of the leave.... it was giving it up! So it seems FR are already asking pilots to forgo some of their leave next year.
They must be truly stuffed or perhaps this is just another benefit dressed up as offering flexibility .

Giving up your month off is surely illegal, if you done this you'd be left with 10days annual leave for the year! Way below the 28days legal requirement.
It's a shame as I'm sure a select few will actually do this.....

Ryan Air back in the news, New York Times piece,

Jet Pilot Might Not Seem Like a ‘Gig,’ but at Ryanair, It Is



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/b...r-pilots.html?

I have no sight of actual numbers but it just seen a screenshot that claims FR have in fact grounded 85 ac and are short significant numbers to cover the upcoming season. Perhaps the reason they’re reportedly already asking folk to give up leave next year?

Up to six months delay now between LST and start of LT for the cadet, appears to be lengthening more and more. Poor folks ! :sad:

The second the news kicked off with the 'are/aren't they' short of pilots then they kicked into full swing throwing guys through the base training. Over 100 in under 2 weeks! Bear in mind these guys were already waiting for a long time, unpaid and demoralised. But Ryanair don't care - until there is a publicity opportunity to get photographed at a wings ceremony.

The inevitable has happened and now the cadets are delayed at a different stage of training (wait, where are all the LTCs), still unpaid and unloved. But their picture is already on Twitter so nobody is in a rush to sort it out.

Apparently October was a Ryanair record for pilot resignations...

I hear some different stories though, I know a guy who started ground school last january, he has finished line training a while ago already. Also heard about a guy(indirect, so can't confirm its true) who finished TR beginning of this month and also had base training this week.

I hope this is true as I will start my TR next week haha

RYR pilots from Swedish bases have organised themselves under the umbrella of the Swedish Pilots Union.

Pilots are under the delusion the aviation regulatory authorities will act in an employment dispute - they will not. Within Europe there may be Excepted Airlines with Special Arrangements. Stop wasting time believing the regulators will be your savior.

The way forward is to join a union and obtain a legal ruling on the employment relationship. Study this International Labour Organization publication and associated conventions (to which most of Europe are signatories):

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/pub...cms_209280.pdf

If I am based outside of Ireland, I don’t give a rat’s ass what the Supreme Court of Ireland ruled or didn’t rule. Wise up.

PJN change the status from "hiring a lot" to "massively in need of pilot" on the RYR Page