Christian trade union asks Ryanair to suspend Belgian layoffs during temporary unemployment

Christian trade union CNE/ACV asks Ryanair to suspend layoffs during periods of temporary unemployment. Ryanair, like many other passenger airlines, has been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The Irish low-cost airline wants to play hard and threatens to dismiss 172 Belgian-based cabin crew members, according to Didier Lebbe from Christian union CNE/ACV.

“These costly lay-offs, while Ryanair is benefiting from temporary unemployment schemes, are in contradiction with the claim of the company to have €4.5 billion in reserve and huge development plans,” Lebbe wrote in a statement.

“Furthermore, Ryanair asks unions to reduce wages but these wages are already at the legal minimum. But there is worse: at the same time, Ryanair is recruiting crews for Belgium (as well as for Spain and Portugal) in regions of Europe with lower wages to replace the staff made redundant,” he added.

“Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Ryanair’s CEO granted himself a €500,000 bonus.”

In the first coronavirus wave, the Belgian government decided to prohibit layoffs during the
periods of temporary unemployment, but this only applies to layoffs with the benefit of a
notice, not immediate dismissals with payment of compensatory indemnity.

Therefore, CNE/ACV asks the Minister of Labour to intervene on the basis of the
Renault Act and to modify this law in order to extend it to all layoffs.

“Our request is not far-fetched or unrealistic, it remains in the logic of the temporary unemployment, the purpose of which is to avoid layoffs,” says Lebbe.