Strike notice issued at Ryanair in Zaventem and Charleroi

A strike notice has been issued for the cabin crew of low-cost airline Ryanair in Belgium. This was announced by the Christian trade union. Actions are possible very soon.

The concrete reason for the strike notice is that negotiations on a new collective agreement on wages and premiums for cabin crew have not yet led to an agreement, says Hans Elsen of ACV Puls. The old CAO (Collective Labour Agreement) expired at the end of March. There is also dissatisfaction because Ryanair, three years after it agreed to apply Belgian labour law, is still not respecting a number of "basic conditions", he adds.

The positions in the negotiations for a new collective labour agreement are still far apart. "Ryanair thinks it is a crisis, while we believe that the airline's current profit forecast offers room for better conditions for the cabin crew," Elsen said. "We want to give Ryanair another chance to negotiate seriously." If the company does not do so, then "there could be a strike as early as next week".

According to the trade unionist, Ryanair employs about 400 stewards and stewardesses at the airports of Charleroi and Zaventem. The announcement does not apply to the pilots, for whom negotiations are still ongoing.

The last strike at Ryanair in Belgium dates back to September 2018. In that period, there were a total of four strike days, during which dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed.

Most recently, Ryanair reached an amicable settlement with consumer organisation Test Aankoop over compensation for the some 33,000 passengers affected by those actions. Test Aankoop had filed a class action against the Irish low-cost airline in July 2019 for refusing to reimburse passengers who had been affected.

© BELGA PHOTO POOL CHRISTOPHE LICOPPE - Illustration picture shows Ryanair planes during a visit to several services at Brussels South Airport, in Gosselies, Charleroi, Friday 10 April 2020.