Yahoo Finance Ryanair publishes staff payslips amid pilot strikes
Budget airline Ryanair has taken the bold step of publishing the pay and benefits afforded to its pilots amid the third 24-hour strike from Irish workers in an ongoing dispute over working conditions and promotions.
Writing on its website, the company revealed the monthly and annual salary of its staff, claiming Irish pilots now earn up to €200,000 (£178,000) per annum, which equates to over €16,000 (£14,000) per month.
The post also states that pilots work a fixed roster of 5 days on, followed by 4 days off and agreed a 20% pay rise earlier this year.
Pilots began their strike at 1am on Tuesday, forcing Ryanair to cancel 16 flights, affecting 2,500 passengers.
The budget airline criticised the strikes as unnecessary and warned that if they continue, there could be job losses.
The company claimed only 94 of 350 pilots had voted to strike and suggested its B737 captains earned 20% more than at its competitor companies Norwegian and Jet2.
The highest earners in the release were shown to be UK pilots, with an example payslip showing an annual salary of £219,209.76.
Trade union Forsa, which represents the Irish pilots, hit out at the airline company on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the union said the pilots continue to seek a "fair and transparent method" to govern base transfers and related matters which they say is common practice in the industry.
The spokesman added: "At present, company management has total discretion on transfers, which can see pilots moved to bases thousands of miles from their homes and families.
Sadly Forsa prefer to strike first rather than use strikes as a last resort
Ryanair spokesperson
"Most other airlines have a fair and transparent criteria, based on seniority, to govern pilot relocations."
Forsa and Ryanair management have met twice in the last two weeks, for some nine hours.
The union said that the discussions found common ground on the possibility of establishing a joint working group to thrash out the disputed issues, however the parties couldn't agree on terms of reference for such a group.
In a statement, Ryanair said that it is available to meet Forsa "at any time".
"After three months and two meetings lasting over nine hours, Forsa still haven't responded to our written proposals on seniority, base transfers and annual leave, which addresses their claimed requirements.
"Sadly Forsa prefer to strike first rather than use strikes as a last resort.
"When Ryanair has already agreed pilot recognition deals in bigger markets like Italy and the UK, clearly it's for Forsa and 25% of the Irish pilots that are causing these problems in Ireland, not Ryanair."
Meanwhile, Ryanair cabin crew in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy are going on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, leading to the cancellation of 600 flights over two days and affecting 100,00 passengers.
The airline will have to either refund the passengers or arrange alternative flights.
Unions in the countries say they want Ryanair staff to be employed according to the national legislation of the country they operate in, rather than that of Ireland.
