Well, if they won't do it, what's stopping the captain from stepping up and then charging the company back afterwards? We can discuss for years how XYZ company is bad and is abusing its employees and the captain can either be limited by his company's lazyness or he can step up and show them how it's done. Worse case situation is that the captain is out of pocket for that expense but I'm sure anyone smart enough to get to that seat can also use this situation to his advantage, yes?


Are they (FR) not shooting themselves in the foot here? Okay, the crew staged the picture, but really, who is responsible for the crew in the first place?

I think before rushing to assume "the captain" should have stepped up and solved this accomodation problem it's worth establishing if there was one even involved in this situation...some airlines have crew on different itinaries...

As for the financial angle - A question - How good at FR at reimbursing staff for money spent on non-pre approved ad hoc expenses?

Agree with the comments about the images, it doesn't matter what was staged or not, it does seem the crew were left without "suitable accommodaton".

I'm not sure why you're asking me that, ask Ryanair!
As I said, I have to do it and I do get reimbursed where necessary. I have no idea how that particular company deal with a situation like this - although it's obvious what they ought to do if they expect their crew to be fit to fly.

Not sure who those people are however, I just think that nowadays news are not balanced at all, yes, it might have been a protest but to me it seems that people just enjoy saying bad things about FR regardless of what they do.
I am not defending them, I am just looking at it from a rational point of view. There are always 2 sides of the story!
In saying that, I don't think the "perfect employer" exists.....

Lets hope this trick doesn't lead to dismissals due to defamation. It's very apparent things in Ryanair need to change but play acting wont get you very far!
I've had an unscheduled overnight with the airline I work for during similar circumstances, it was the captain who sorted the problem as our operations were completely unable to deal with the disruptions. He was repaid by the company in the following paycheck, not ideal but it worked out fine for everyone.

Flyingmed
That is how its done as a last resort.
Unfortunately some Captains think their responsibility stops once the park brake is set.
Find a hotel, get Company to pay. Part of the job if Company fails.

Playing Film Director: Not part of the job.
Sorry to say, but this story is a little to childish!

Childish, maybe.

But also a very very smart piece of PR, on so many levels.

​​​​​​MOL is starting to discover that at some point the children grow up and start to play you at your own games...

​​​

What do you mean? How can there be a stranded crew but no stranded captains? As for reimbursement, if FR repays the expense, then good, if not, then I'm sure this would still be useful to some people at some point, yes?


Not asking you per se, but asking the captains here, really. We all know that FR won't do it for whatever reason, so what's stopping a captain from stepping up now and putting pressure on FR to reimburse him later on?

Do you think said employees did not know there was CCTV in the crew room?

​​​​Cunning indeed!

FR management simply do not know how or when to STFU. This is their achilles heel...

One word:

McLibel

It does not matter if the photo was staged or not; what the photo portrayed (poor treatment of FR employees) is a matter of fact, which FR have themselves now confirmed by the CCTV.

So there is no defamation case here

Libel
 

This photo is definitely defamatory. It is a blatant attempt to show crew being mistreated by their employer. If you work for a company and post anything misleading or false (be it photos or text) about that company on Instagram/Facebook/Linkedin or any other public forum you are subject to libel. This photo was misleading AND false. The path to a better Ryanair is a tightrope, the unions (I hope) dot the i's and cross the t's because any step out of line only falls into Ryanairs hands and I really think this post if it was true would be brilliant, but the fact that it is fake has really undermined the process of crew recognition. Wasn't someone sued a few years ago after posting false comments about Ryanair on PPrune?

I do not condone the treatment of crew (especially cabin crew) by Ryanair however we are all adults working in a highly professional job and this just seemed like a very childish tactic!

The crew apparently stayed the night in the VIP lounge of the airport and then positioned home the next day but did not operate so the legal side of FTL's are not an issue here.

Think outside the box

McDonalds actually won the McLibel case on paper...but the court case itself simply drew huge media attention and publicized the companies dubious practices so ultimately it was a pyrrhic victory which did huge damage to the brand.

The case is widely regarded as the ultimate corporate own-goal in PR circles.

That is one way to look at it but I am currently seeing outrage by the public towards Ryanair when they see this article, however once they see that this photo is a fake the outrage has been turned to the crew. It is a hard enough battle to get recognition with public support, and the crew in Ryanair need all the momentum they can get. Part of the problem in Ryanair is that they mistreated their adult crew by treating them like children, this crew proved a point and acted like children. I am trying to see your positive view on this Sonikt however I can only see this as a setback and contradictory to what these crews (and most of the airline world) want to see with a unionized Ryanair.

Or the crew simply staged a friendy reminder to crew control that they where still in the crew room, and as a result got moved to a lounge.
But the picture got spread and because both sides are full of hot heads who don't know when to be the better person and pipe down, it got blown out of all proportions. Culminating mgmt had hoped with the release of a surveilance video for the benefit of the general public, that with afterthought could lead to no good since it is crew unrest not customers that have been causing disruptions lately.
Sometimes thinking twice before talking is required both when it comes to announcing cancellations without specifics and airing internal laundry in public.

General public: "Ohhhhh, I'm ouraged at the treatment of these people."
"Ohhhhh, I do say, a ticket to Malaga for 20 quid. Wonder how they can fly multi-million dollar airplanes around for that sort of price?".

You can win the battle but lose the war. FR may look bad by not providing their crew suitable accommodations, the video they released about the fake picture only makes them look *less* bad.