A long-standing Ryanair pilot has described the airline as ‘toxic’ after hundreds of workers were handed memos advising them to relocate or take 12 months’ unpaid leave.
The employee, who spoke to Mirror Money on grounds on anonymity, accused Michael O’Leary’s budget airline of having a “long history of using bullying and scare tactics against employees”, while speaking about the latest round of potential job cuts.
The comments come after a letter was sent to hundreds of crew members last Tuesday, advising them of over-staffing issues.
“With yesterday’s collapse of Thomas Cook with the loss of 9,000 jobs in the UK and potentially a further 13,000 jobs across Europe, we hope that there will be sufficient applications for unpaid leave/part time, so we do not have to resort to job losses at [your base] this winter,” it reads.
The memo went on to explain that due to a delay in the launch of the Boeing Max, the airline has a “surplus of 500 pilots” for the winter season.
It said crew members will need to choose between unpaid leave or a transfer to avoid potentially losing their job.
It added that “recruitment has been frozen” and a “significant surplus of pilots must be reduced” at all UK bases including Stansted and Manchester.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
The letter then stated that there are “limited vacancies” for full-time pilots at bases in Morocco, Romania and Hungary.
Our whistleblower described the memo as “yet another example of their bullying and scare tactics”.
“The recent memo circulating online from Ryanair threatening redundancies and asking pilots to take unpaid leave due to ‘over crewing’ is yet another example of their bullying and scare tactics,” he said.
He claims that those that have applied for unpaid leave have now been told that it is not available – suggesting redundancies are inevitable.
“Ryanair regularly sends out factually incorrect memos written in a similar manner in order to scare their employees into toeing the company line,” he claimed.
“Hopefully this will shed a light on their bullying and scare tactics, creating a toxic work environment and putting pressure on professional pilots who work tirelessly to ensure every flight is operated safely.”
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Speaking on potential redundancies, a Ryanair spokesman told Mirror Money: “As announced in August 2019, due to the late delivery of the Boeing Max aircraft, a number of Ryanair bases will be cut or closed this winter.
“Ryanair has also confirmed that due to pilot resignations dwindling to almost zero in recent months, it has a surplus of over 500 pilots.
“Ryanair has written to its pilots at relevant bases offering them base transfers and unpaid leave, but cannot rule out redundancies if these measures are not sufficient to eliminate our current pilot surplus.”
