Ryanair referred to employment and tax authorities over crew pay and conditions

After a disastrous end to 2017 having to cancel over 2000 flights due to the majority of pilots taking annual leave at the same time, Ryanair are under the spotlight again for poor HR practises.

Ryanair has been referred to HMRC and employment tsar over poor working conditions and paying workers less than minimum wage. Last year Ryanair were questioned about how they pay their workers when reports surfaced that some cabin crew staff were working for free. Ryanair’s HR director responded to allegations stating, ‘crew earned between €24,000 (£21,150) and €40,000 (£35,250) a year, double the legal minimum for the work carried out.’

MP’s were not satisfied with the response as the figures did not match a contract that was provided to them. Government suspect that Ryanair has made deductions for uniform, training and forced workers to take periods of unpaid annual leave. All the aforementioned reduce pay for national minimum wage purposes.