Updated: Ryanair crew agree pay cuts to save jobs

Unions have secured agreements with Ryanair which will result in no job losses among cabin crew and pilots.

But staff will be forced to take temporary pay cuts of up to 20%.

Unite, which represents cabin crew, has hailed the airline’s `constructive’ approach as being in direct contrast to other airlines.

In May, Ryanair announced it was planning to cut 3,000 jobs across its European operation, mainly affecting cabin crew and pilots.

Since that announcement Unite and BALPA have been in talks with Ryanair to ensure that job losses and the potential closure of Ryanair’s bases in the UK were averted.

As part of the negotiations, Ryanair said pilots have agreed a 20% pay cut, to be restored over four years.

They have also agreed productivity improvements on rosters, flexibe working patterns and annual leave.

The airline said:"This agreement gives Ryanair the framework to flex its operation during the Covid-19 crisis and a pathway to recovery when the business returns to normal in the years ahead."

Unite agreed the following measures:

* workers will have a temporary tiered pay cut; the lowest paid will have a 5% pay cut, then 7.5% and the highest paid will have a 10%

* the pay cuts will be returned in two tranches in 2023 and 2024

* the current pay agreement covering increases in wages will be retained and will be phased in from 2023

* there will be a review clause which if Ryanair returns to pre-Covid-19 levels of business earlier, the pay cuts can be reversed earlier.

Unite members have voted to accept the pay reductions in order to save jobs.

Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: "Unite has been contending with an incredibly difficult set of circumstances in the aviation sector.

"The agreement with Ryanair shows that the company has taken a more constructive and less damaging approach to dealing with the issues than many of its competitor airlines."

Unite national officer for aviation Oliver Richardson said: "That these reductions are temporary and tiered to ensure the lowest paid are least affected was an important outcome of our negotiations and critical to our members voting to accept the proposals. Unite has always maintained that temporary problems require temporary solutions.

"Ryanair’s management have shown that it is possible to reach an agreement on exactly that basis. It is always difficult for members to accept reductions in pay but in order to preserve jobs it is exactly what our cabin crew have agreed to do."