During a meeting in Brussels at the offices of the European Commission, the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, reminded Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, of the need to respect European social law, particularly with regard to the application of the workers’ home base principle.
At the end of the meeting with the Ryanair CEO, who has had to confront an unprecedented wave of strikes (see EUROPE 12077, 11869), the Commissioner stated "Respect for Community law is not something that workers should have to negotiate or something that is different from one country to another".
The Commissioner asserted “I have been very clear with Mr O'Leary today… The internal market is not a jungle: it includes clear rules on the fair mobility of work and workers' protection”. This was a reference to several recent rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union, particularly judgements C-168/16 and C-169/16, clarifying the law applicable to cabin crew contracts (see EUROPE 11776), as well as to regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of Social Security systems.
The meeting with the Commissioner had been requested by Mr O’Leary. The latter sent the Commissioner a letter on 18 September providing assurances that he wanted to negotiate with the employees' unions to get them to change over to a local contract by 2019.
This development is seen positively at the European Commission, given that the initial proposals made by Mr O'Leary mentioned 2022 for this changeover. The Commissioner repeated “Nonetheless, respect for the law is not something workers should have to negotiate or something that can be postponed until a later date".
The other major question involves respect for the right to strike, which is something the Ryanair CEO does not appreciate very much. Several sources informed us that in this connection the Commission had pointed out that it was up to the member states to ensure that this right is respected. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)