The Social Chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed Ryanair ‘s appeal against the judgment of the National Court which declared that the company violated the right to strike of the workers who participated in the call on 10 days of September of 2019, as well as the freedom of association rights of the unions Unión Sindical Obrera Sector Transporte Aéreo and SITCPLA.
The sentence now ratified declared the radical nullity of several of the company actions, as contrary to the fundamental rights to strike and freedom of association, and ordered the defendant companies to indemnify the 2 plaintiff unions for moral damages caused with the sum of 30,000 euro for each of them, in addition to reinstating the workers who participated in the strikes throughout September of 2019 in the monthly productivity bonus for an amount of 150 euro per month, from which only the sum of 5 euro can be deducted for each day of participation in said strike.
Ryanair’s controversial CEO, Michael O’Leary, warned his cabin crew and pilots that year that they could lose their jobs if they go ahead with the protests: “If these unnecessary strikes continue to damage customer confidence, prices and profitability in certain national markets, we will need to review our winter schedule, which may lead to fleet reductions at certain bases and job losses.”
On the other hand, the airline’s chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, posited that “if there are other bases where we can make more money and operate more efficiently, then we’ll assign more planes to them.”
The workers justified this strike to demand that the airline apply Spanish legislation to workers residing in Spain instead of Ireland, which is the country of registration of the planes. An anomaly that causes imbalances ranging from labour aspects such as health care, to tax.
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