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Ryanair signs union deals in Ireland, Italy

Ryanair announced union agreements with pilots in Italy and cabin crew in Ireland this week to add to its deal with Irish flight crew last week to end a series of strikes by pilots.

But the European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents pilots across Europe, said negotiations on disputes elsewhere remain “stalled”.

Members of the Irish pilots’ union Forsa are poised to vote on an agreement to end their dispute with Ryanair, details of which have not been disclosed.

However, Forsa signed a cabin crew recognition agreement with Ryanair this week to add to the collective labour agreement (CLA) the airline signed with the Italian airline pilots’ association.

Ryanair chief people officer Eddie Wilson said: “We have invited our UK, German and Spanish unions to meet with us in the coming days so we can negotiate and hopefully agree similar pilot CLAs in other larger markets.”

The ECA described the Irish and Italian agreements as “meaningful steps forward”.

But in a statement, the association said: “With negotiations in other countries stalled, Ryanair needs to show more will and ambition to address pilots’ concerns and to resolve other disputes.”

ECA president Dirk Polloczek said: “The CLA in Italy and the Irish tentative agreement [with pilots] should be the beginning of the process, not the end result.

“Pilots in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden were on strike a couple of weeks ago and the new deals will not make them wave off their many concerns.

“Negotiations in Spain and Portugal are in deadlock, and in Spain Ryanair has been taken to court by pilot union SEPLA over the use of Irish agency contracts for pilots living and operating in Spain.”

Polloczek said: “The path to a network-wide agreement is still far ahead.”

The association described the Italian agreement as “specific to Italian particularities”. It said the deal “does not cover more generic issues of a cross-border/transnational nature, such as a Master Seniority Agreement”.

At the same time, the ECA said the Irish agreement “is not a CLA” and addresses “specific aspects of annual leave, base transfers and command upgrades”.

“Such transnational issues are logically to be negotiated on a European level because the company operates beyond the borders of one country and they affect crew the same way.”

The association is seeking a deal across 12 countries in which Ryanair operates.

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