Ryanair wants to transfer 28 workers from Brussels Airport to other bases, essentially Charleroi

Ryanair management came to Brussels Thursday morning to meet with the trade unions about its intention to remove one aircraft out of four from its Brussels Airport base in April. Ryanair had to reduce its presence at Brussels because of the non-delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 that it has ordered, after the grounding of the model in the wake of two fatal accidents claiming 346 lives.

Management explained that there will be 28 people in excess at Brussels Airport, 10 pilots and 18 cabin crew members, which Ryanair intends to transfer to other bases.

Management favours a transfer to Charleroi, but other countries are also possible. Workers would be transferred “without compensation“, explains Didier Lebbe of trade union ACV/CNE. Some of these people would like to return to their country of origin, but they should move at their ownexpense, which unions don’t accept. In addition, workers would have a local employment contract, depending on the place of transfer. 

Furthermore, Ryanair says it has the right to transfer workers abroad even if they don’t volunteer. Unions question the legality of such a move.

A staff meeting was held this afternoon, in the wake of the meeting with management. The unions said that a forced transfer to another country was a breach of contract. They want a new meeting with Ryanair management as soon as possible to discuss the issue.