Ryanair pilots demand double pay offered by airline at Stansted

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc’s pilot uprising shows little signs of abating, with an ad-hoc group demanding that a wage increase offered to crews at London Stansted airport be doubled and extended across the budget airline’s European bases.
The unofficial European Employee Representative Council made the proposal to pilots after cockpit crews at Ryanair’s biggest base rejected the existing offer, according to a document sent to pilots on Sunday and seen by Bloomberg. The group has asked for feedback from air crew and pledged to organise strikes if a new deal can’t be reached.
Pilots at Ryanair’s London Stansted base voted 60 percent to 40 percent against raises and bonuses of as much as 22,000 pounds ($29,000), which would boost basic compensation to 74,000 pounds, the discount airline said. The ad-hoc group’s demands would increase basic pay to 150,000 pounds for captains across the company from 64,000 pounds currently.The stand-off between pilots and executives has simmered since the airline was forced to cancel more than 20,000 flights affecting about 700,000 customers due to botched planning that left it lacking enough crew to maintain its schedule. The EERC, created after the cancellations last month, is seeking to establish a collective bargaining group across the carrier’s 86 bases.
Pilots look to be taking “an unreasonable stand,” Mark Simpson, an analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin, wrote in a report to investors. “This is a wish list that will be firmly rejected by the company and sounds as if they have taken on a lead from the US union representatives that have been advising Ryanair’s pilots.”
Ryanair shares fell as much as 0.6 percent to 16.14euros as of 8:41 a.m. in Dublin. That pared the stock’s gain this year to 11 percent, valuing the company at 19.1 billion euros ($22.5 billion).

‘Satisfactory Agreement’
“While no pilot may wish to take industrial action, sometimes it is the only way to bring an intransigent employer to a satisfactory agreement,” the EERC said. “We have to consider this possibility to ensure we have an equal voice at the negotiating table.”
The demands, which would be retroactive to September 1, include having Ryanair cover training costs, pilot medicals, free drinks and snacks on board flights, uniforms, and ground transport and accommodation while working from an alternative base. All pilots would be offered permanent contracts under the plan, and upon signing the new deal the employees would receive shares in the company tied to their seniority.
Ryanair will hire new pilots at the higher rates rejected at Stansted, a spokesman for the company said, adding that Ryanair “will continue to engage with the London Stansted ERC to understand how it can address their remaining concerns.” Management’s existing pay offer, which has been accepted at more than 10 bases, lifts salaries ahead of rates at rivals Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA and Jet2 by about
20 percent.
The Stansted pilots’ rejection follows a series of blows to Ryanair, including a call to strike by an Italian union and pledges of financial and logistical support from three major US labour groups. Dublin-based Ryanair has said it will not recognise any union body, citing two previous failed efforts to organise its pilots in 2004 and 2012.
The company is hiring more staff to manage rosters and has named Malaysia Airlines Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Peter Bellew to replace its chief operations officer who left the Irish airline this month. Bellew, a former Ryanair executive, will rejoin on December 1.