Ryanair has ordered some Spanish flight attendants to repay a salary increase of up to 3,000 euros (£2,525) after a legal dispute with the union.
The wage increases were agreed to with the Spanish Union, CCOO, and applied to all flight attendants, regardless of the union they belong to. However, another Spanish Union – the union Syndical Obrela – won a contract in March and voided the deal.
The Irish airline now writes to Union Syndical Obrera to let members know how much they owe.
Union Syndical Obrera has fought back against Ryanair’s decision to curb wage increases for five months, but the company said “USO is complaining about the wage cuts arising from their trial.”
“Ryanair is complying with the trial that Union Syndical Obrela complained of cutting wages during the appeal,” he added.
The union told the BBC:
Ryanair has agreed to a pay deal for flight attendants who are members of the CCOO Union.
They do not need to repay the increases they received between October and March, despite the initial agreement declared by the court to be invalid.
The rise is that Ryanair is demanding members pay 1,500 to 3,000 euros, according to Union Syndical Obrera.
Union Syndical Obrera also said that members and non-members are repaid before the agreement is implemented.
A Ryanair spokesman refused to answer questions about how many flight attendants are pursuing or what will happen if they don’t pay back the money.
However, Union Syndical Obrera said the airline told the affected flight attendants “the money will simply be deducted from the payroll terms until the debt is paid.”
“Some non-aligned workers are not forced to pay back the amount,” he added, but “all union representatives of Syndical Obrera are being requested to return the money.”
In the letter, Ryanair describes the union’s decision to maintain terms agreed on based on the original deal with the CCOO.
However, the union claims that those negotiating the deal are not permitted to do so and that “it is the reason as they were unable to legally sign such an agreement. [Union Sindical Obrera] I left the negotiations after advised all other parties that the negotiations were irregular.”
In a document seen by the BBC, Ryanair tells flight attendants, who are members of Union Syndical Obrera, that this “created an overpayment situation” as it is not part of the transaction agreed to with the CCOO.
The airline will tell workers that it is “overpayment” based on the calculations.
Offer to have the flight attendant pay the money over the course of a year by removing the total from the monthly salary.
