The Irish low-cost company plans to lay off a quarter of its pilots in France and offers wage cuts of up to 20%, as of this year, for pilots and 10% for flight attendants.
According to several confidential documents that French radio RTL was able to obtain, Ryanair made a proposal. The airline has offered its pilots based in France to lower their salaries by 20%, under penalty of having to lay off part of its workforce.
This drop would start from July 1, 2020. Pilots would gradually recover their salary to 100% after 5 years. The loss of their income over 5 years would be 12%. Ryanair also wants to apply even lower wages for new pilots and co-pilots hired. In addition, until June 30, 2025, no salary increase will be possible.
This ultimatum was presented to the National Union of Air Line Pilots (SNPL) with a response required within 5 days maximum. If this were not the case, Ryanair would have no other choice than to dismiss 29% of the pilots and 27% of the co-pilots whom it identified as in excess.
This represents 23 pilots out of the 81 that the company has on its 3 French bases in Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux.
In other confidential documents that RTL has been able to obtain, Ryanair also offers flight attendants to lower their wages by 10% from July 1, 2020 until July 1, 2025, the date on which cabin crew would recover their entire salary. There would also be no salary increase for a period of 5 years. In addition, new entrants would be paid 10% less than their colleagues.
