Full employment offer to Ryanair pilots in Germany

ALL contract Ryanair pilots in Germany are to be offered full employment status with the airline in coming weeks.

UK firm McGinley Aviation, which provides contract pilots to the carrier, has written to pilots to notify them that the firm will cease the provision of contractors in Germany from October 31.

“Having discussed the matter with the client airline you are provided to (Ryanair), Ryanair has confirmed that they will be offering a direct Ryanair employment contract to you in coming weeks,” McGinley Aviation managing director Elizabeth Cusack said in a letter to contract pilots.

She added: “It is important that you liaise with your accountancy providers to ensure that outstanding limited company/ tax/social insurance matters are dealt with appropriately.”

About half of Ryanair’s pilots in Germany are contractors.

German tax authorities have previously raided Ryanair contract pilots’ homes and some of the airline bases as part of investigations into McGinley Aviation and another contract pilot provider, UK-based Brookfield.

Tax authorities have been investigating if there was evasion of income taxes and social welfare contributions. Meanwhile, the Portuguese Ryanair company council has claimed in a letter to the airline’s chief people officer, Eddie Wilson, that it is breaching Portuguese labour laws “in certain clauses”.