RYANAIR fires all staff in the Netherlands

Budget airline Ryanair has sacked all pilots and cabin crew based in the Netherlands who were not willing to relocate out of the country. The Irish airline filed for a collective firing of its Netherlands-based staff through the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), the government authority that handles unemployment benefits in the Netherlands.

With staff offered relocation to bases as far away as Morocco and Belarus, for many this was not an option.

Citing “bad economic results” for its operations out of Eindhoven being closing last month, the airline also blamed these results for the subsequent layoff of staff. Unions for pilots and crew have already said they would appeal the mass layoff.

Chairman of the VNV pilots union, Joost van Doesburg was surprised by the UWV’s acceptance of the mass firing of the Ryanair staff.

Ryanair had not yet come forward with the cited band economic numbers that had been used to justify the layoffs.

While the scheduled flights to and from Eindhoven will not cease, their operational bases have been moved to countries with less restrictive labour laws. Ryanair spokesman Yann Delomez told Central European News that the affected pilots “have been offered jobs elsewhere in the network. If they choose not to transfer, then we will respect their wishes, but there will be no jobs remaining at Eindhoven.”

Source: Ryanair