Revealed: Ryanair cabin crew who work unpaid for up to 5 hours a day
Mail investigation at budget airline’s training centre exposes ruthless exploitation of staff
‘Sharp employment practices’
RUTHLESS exploitation of cabin crew by Ryanair is exposed today by a Daily Mail investigation.
The budget airline’s stewards are being made to work unpaid for as many as five hours in a day, an undercover reporter found after spending last month as a trainee.
Under brutal conditions, they earn money only when in the air, as well as commission on in-flight sales. It means the many hours on the ground – cleaning, security checks and during flight delays – are unpaid.
The conditions apply to thousands of cabin crew hired by third-party agencies for Ryanair. Despite being promised ‘great earnings potential’, they typically take home about £11,000 in the first year, roughly equivalent to an £11,500 salary. Some rivals pay between £15,000 and £25,000.
The company – Europe’s largest airline – made post-tax profits of £1.14billion in the six months to September and its chief executive Michael O’Leary earned a pay package of £2.8million last year.
Lawyers who assessed the Mail’s evidence accused Ryanair of ‘staggering sharp practice’. A probe has been launched by Parliament’s work and pensions and business committees.
The Mail investigation found: ÷Ryanair’s stewards are charged more than £2,000 for training; ÷Recruits pay for uniforms and are charged a fee if they quit; ÷Every year, some agency staff must take up to three months of unpaid leave when it is quiet; ÷Bosses threaten to relocate them abroad if they do not sell enough during flights; ÷They must be available for standby days where they are paid £3.75 per hour – less than half the minimum wage.
Staff issues have led to 700,000 bookings and more than 20,000 flights being cancelled by Ryanair this winter. Its pilots last night suspended a strike over union recognition. Ryanair has said it will recognise pilots’ unions for the first time. But cabin crew say they are still threatened with the sack if they strike.
The Mail reporter was taken on as a trainee by Crewlink, one of two firms that hire for the airline. Last year, it had more than 3,000 on Ryanair’s books. Overall, the airline has about 8,000 stewards.
The reporter was told she would earn a ‘premium’ hourly rate of £14.43, plus commission of 10 per cent of in-flight sales. But the hourly rate would apply only to ‘flight time’, from when a plane leaves the blocks till it is parked at its destination.
Recruits were told the unpaid work would consist of at least 45 minutes before the day’s first flight, time between flights, and half an hour after the final flight. Instructor Dorota Sowinska said they could work for ten hours in a day but get paid for only five.
Stewards hired directly by Ryanair get a basic gross annual salary of £9,616 with a lower hourly flight time rate. They have access to a company pension scheme and sick pay. Agency recruits can apply to be full-time staff after a year but many are kept on agency contracts for far longer. Many crew said they estimated only about 20 per cent of colleagues were on direct contracts.
The Mail’s reporter was told she could top up earnings through sales. Until 2015, Ryanair stewards earned commission on what they sold as a group. Now they earn on individual sales – and are given strict targets and a raft of hard selling techniques.
Agency cabin crew face costs of least £2,150 for training and £25 per month for uniform in the first year. They are paid a £1,000 allowance in the first year, but this can be claimed back if they quit in this time. A 2017 contract seen by the Mail states that a steward would have a £175 ‘administration cost’ taken from his salary if he left in the first 15 months.
Of seven airlines contacted, Ryanair is the only one that hires through third-party agencies which offer no basic salary.
EasyJet, British Airways, Jet2, Virgin Atlantic, FlyBe and Lufthansa hire directly and pay staff basic annual salaries from £14,069. All offer free training, except Jet2 which charges £700.
The Mail’s reporter was told she must be available for standby shifts – at home, when crew are not paid but have to stay an hour from the airport; or ‘airport standby’, when they must be on site in uniform and can be made to clean and sell tickets.
For these eight-hour shifts, they are paid £30, or £3.75 per hour. Ryanair said this is lawful as total pay is above minimum wage when flight time and sales commission is included.
Edward Cooper, of law firm Slater and Gordon, said charging for leaving a job is ‘staggering and warrants further investigation’.
Lawyer Nicholas Evans, of Fletcher Day, said Ryanair could be breaking the law if it does not record stewards’ full work hours, adding: ‘The evidence indicates there’s a lot of sharp employment practices going on.’
Frank Field, of the work and pensions committee, said: ‘The dice are loaded in favour of megaprofitable companies who are willing to shamelessly exploit workers to obtain a competitive advantage…we will be investigating these allegations further.’
Rachel Reeves, of the business, committee, said: ‘These allegations suggest a company falling well short of its duty to staff.’ The transport committee’s Lilian Greenwood said: ‘Low prices can never come at the expense of fair, safe, legal treatment for staff.’
Ryanair denied any wrongdoing. It said agency cabin crew’s hourly wage for flight time covers all duty time, including on the ground, and full work hours are recorded as the law requires. It said minimum wage legislation does not cover standby duties.
The firm said it is entitled to put small numbers of personnel on unpaid leave in quieter periods and average pay for crew, including agency workers but not supervisors, is £21,140. It said recruits who stay for a year get an ‘annual uniform allowance’ of £396. Crewlink declined to comment.