‘ONLY PAID FOR HOURS IN AIR’
On a grim base in Germany, cabin crew hopefuls pay €3,000 to learn firm’s harsh regime – and to cynically target passengers for their cash
IN a classroom on an abandoned airbase in rural Germany, Dorota Sowinska addresses 35 of Ryanair’s latest recruits.
The air stewardess, who is wearing the budget airline’s trademark blue and yellow uniform, is standing in front of a large white flipchart. At the top, she has written the words ‘FLIGHT TIME’.
‘You are only paid for the hours in the air,’ she announces. ‘If you have a delay and you are staying somewhere, you are not getting paid for the time on the ground.’
Ms Sowinska adds that in a ten-hour shift, the Ryanair stewards may end up getting paid for only five. This is because the work they do when not flying – including cleaning the plane, checking for explosives, boarding the passengers and filling out paperwork – will be totally unpaid.
The significance of this appears to be lost on many of the novices, who earnestly note down the instructor’s words. Some of them are just 18.
Also in the room is an undercover Mail reporter, posing as a recruit. She presses Ms Sowinska – why aren’t they paid for so many hours of work?
The Ryanair trainer offers no explanation, simply responding: ‘It’s the rule.’
It is early November and the class of 35 has been flown to the six-week training camp by Crewlink, a third-party Irish firm used by Ryanair to hire cabin crew. In total, there are almost 300 recruits, split into eight classes.
The course is a fast-track to a career in the skies. Within hours of completing it, those who pass are flown straight to one of 84 bases across Europe. At the course attended by the Mail, trainees come from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia and the UK.
They soon discover that Ryanair’s notorious cost-cutting extends to the conditions for recruits on the course.
The Hahn Training Centre in western Germany is on an isolated former airbase, with dozens of derelict barracks. The main training building consists of little more than threadbare classrooms. In the thick fog, one student describes it as looking ‘like a horror film’.
Between classes, trainees queue in the cold to buy food from a bread van that visits once a day. Inside, there is one vending machine. There is also a shuttle bus so they can get food from an airport terminal a mile away.
The closest supermarket is Lidl, a 40-minute walk away along a dual carriageway. To avoid high prices at the airport, most go to Lidl in the dark after lessons.
Their accommodation is a former hotel with a boarded-up reception, dank laundry room and one kitchen for up to 230 people. The showers are often cold.
The recruits begin each day standing in front of the class while their appearance is critiqued. Women’s hair must be worn in a French roll, or a bun up to 6in in diameter. Nails are checked for chips. Lipstick must match nail colour exactly. For men, facial hair must be no longer than 12mm.
If they get the job, the recruits face ‘grooming discrepancy’ warnings detailing any failures, such as ‘messy hair’. Getting too many of these leads to dismissal.
The course is very thorough. Hours are spent on safety procedures, training on dealing with bombs, fire-fighting and first aid.
Students are failed if they do not achieve 100% attendance.
For every minute a student is late to a lesson, ten minutes are added to the end of the working day for the entire class. They are often forced to stay at the centre many hours into the night.
While the job is advertised as offering ‘great earnings potential’ and ‘great benefits’, the trainees face repeated demands for cash.
As well as paying between €2,400 and €3,000 in training fees, which can be deducted gradually from their wages, they pay a nonrefundable €500 registration fee and €700 for their bed-only accommodation during training. They will later be billed for an airport ID and uniform, and are charged a fee if they leave the job within the first 15 months. Crewlink hires hundreds of recruits a year for Ryanair.
Some 90% pass the training, but up to 30% of them have their contracts terminated within the first 12 probationary months. However, they are still legally contracted to pay back their course fees and any allowances paid to them.
Asked why they persevere with the course despite the grim conditions, one 20-year-old Slovakian said: ‘We’ve already paid enough to be here, and we have to pay it back if we quit. Besides … it is better money than in my country.’
A British girl added: ‘I’ve been ringing [my parents] complaining and they said, “By the sounds of it you’re not having a very good time for something you want to do”.’ Others spoke of how they planned to leave Ryanair after the first year and find work with another airline. But many said quitting was too expensive. The airline said conditions at the training centre were ‘basic but acceptable’
‘We have to pay it back if we quit’
and the school was certified by the Irish Aviation Authorities for holding training courses. It said it provided €16 per night accommodation but recruits could choose to stay elsewhere.
A spokesman said its grooming rules were ‘fair and balanced and typical of all airlines’.