The collective agreement between Ryanair and the Transport Workers’ Union covers cabin crew and has been in force since 1 September. From a trade union perspective, the fact that the low-cost airline has signed a formal collective agreement in Sweden is a significant development.
Read this article in Swedish on Arbeidsliv i Norden
Ryanair has been known for its hard-line anti-union stance, ever since the EU aviation market was deregulated in 1997. As well as refusing to sign collective agreements, the company has engaged in what is known as ‘regime shopping’ between the legal systems of EU member states.
The basic principle is that workers’ terms and conditions of employment are governed by the law of the country where they habitually carry out their work, or from which they habitually do so. For flight crew, however, it is not always easy to determine which country that is.
Companies can exploit this to the detriment of workers by claiming that they are employed in countries whose rules on wages, working hours, social security contributions and pensions are most favourable to the employer.
Another way of avoiding obligations under employment law has been to hire so-called self-employed contractors rather than directly employed staff.
Ryanair’s policies have, of course, met resistance from trade unions across Europe, but also from employers’ organisations and governments. In more than one case, national courts as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union have also ruled against Ryanair in favour of workers.
In 2019, the European Commission nevertheless felt compelled to adopt a new aviation strategy to tackle attempts by ‘certain’ airlines to engage in regime shopping and make use of bogus self-employed workers.
How much of an effect this has had is unclear, but the company’s principled opposition to negotiating with trade unions has now ended several years ago. Ryanair’s decision now to sign a collective agreement with the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union is therefore the result of many years of pressure.
