Ryanair's Dutch pilots want to strike despite leadership threats

The Belgian and Italian unions are angry about this last passage. "Companies do not have to pay their employees during a day of strike, so we do not care, but to punish someone for dropping out, by refusing this promotion, which does not happen. is not allowed by our national legislation ", according to the Italian union.

But Ryanair does not generally attract much of the national legislation. Irish society applies Irish labor law to all its employees, wherever they are based in the world. And in Ireland, the rules are slightly different.

Michael Doherty, professor of labor law at the Irish Maynooth University, explains that Irish labor legislation offers less protection to employees. "In Ireland, it's not allowed to dismiss someone because of a strike, but otherwise there are few rules," Doherty says. Punishing someone by denying them promotional opportunities is therefore not against Irish law.

Failure

Professor of Industrial Relations John Geary, University College Dublin, remarks that the letter does not mention a strike. "They talk about unauthorized absence, as if the employees had not stopped, but behaved badly."

According to Doherty, this also has a legal cause. "If Ryanair is literally talking about a strike in the letter, it may put the company in trouble if it wants to fire the employee in a few months because a link between the strike and the dismissal would be a violation of the law, they probably keep the cause of the absence as vague as possible. "

The fact that Ryanair continues to apply the Irish employment law to Dutch pilots is also a major disadvantage for the Dutch pilot union. The association requires that Dutch law be enforced.