Ryanair loses legal battle on cabin crew contracts

Ryanair was dealt a blow in its legal battle to force employees across Europe to take disputes to the Irish courts after the European Court of Justice ruled that cabin crew based in other countries could pursue legal claims locally. Analysts suggested it could call the carrier’s employment model into question, leading to potentially higher labour costs. It could also open the door to new claims from crew in other countries over terms and conditions. Ryanair insisted, however, that there would be no change to its practice of employing staff across Europe on Irish contracts, which give the carrier cost-effective benefits over some other EU countries. While the jurisdiction had been decided by Thursday’s ruling, the battle now would be to decide whether Irish law would still apply, regardless of the jurisdiction. <br/>