Stopped for more than three months due to the health crisis triggered by the new coronavirus, the low-cost airline Ryanair threatens to reduce the remuneration of its employees by 10 to 20% for five years to avoid them being made redundant.

Accepting to see your salary lowered or dismissed is essentially what the low-cost airline Ryanair demands of its employees. In several countries in Europe, but also in France, it intends to reduce the remuneration of pilots by 20%, and that of flight personnel by 10%. This situation has been denounced by the French government, and greatly worries the employees.

Pierre *, a steward at Ryanair, saw the company offer him to lose part of his salary for five years. "If you lose 300 euros every month, it amounts to 15,000 euros lost in five years," he laments. "Those who unfortunately have no other choice will end up accepting, otherwise they will end up on the street. And there are others who want to resign if this continues."

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900 euros net per month

For seagoing personnel at the start of their career, the salary would drop to around 900 euros net per month. "This situation is unacceptable," said Damien Mourgues, union delegate SNPNC-FO of Ryanair. "My colleagues of course are worried, want to know what's going on. We don't really have an answer for them since we have no contact with the company."

"This is just the right opportunity to lower wages"

As for pilots, most hope to be covered by their recent French contracts, which are supposed to respect labor law. For Olivier Rigazio, member of the executive board of SNPL, Ryanair is not a company in need of cash: "It is a company which is very aggressive, I am even certain that it is not essential for the finances of Ryanair ", he believes. "This is just the right opportunity to lower wages."

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For its part, Ryanair speaks of "reasonable and time-limited measures", and recalls that its entire fleet has been stopped for more than three months.

* The first name has been changed.