Ryanair’s Portuguese cabin crew trade union SNPVAC said Thursday its members would go on strike for 5 days from Aug 21. The industrial action comes as Ryanair pilots in Ireland and the UK are holding ballots on a possible strike action in August. Ryanair suffered a series of damaging strikes last year. Management say significant progress has been made since, with collective labour agreements concluded with a number of pilot unions throughout Europe. But SNPVAC said Ryanair has refused to comply with a protocol signed last November, which it said included holiday pay, 22 days of annual leave per year and full compliance with Portuguese parental law. “Strike notice for all cabin crew duties between 00:00 of the 21st of August until 23:29 of 25th of August was sent today to all the relevant entities,” the union said. <br/>
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Ryanair's planned cull of pilots has reached the group’s Austrian subsidiary, with workers there told that the positions of 30 flight-deck crews are at risk. Laudamotion CE Andreas Gruber said in a letter to employees that the jobs will need to go if an agreement on savings and new flight rosters can’t be reached with unions in the next 2 weeks. A spokesman for the German pilots’ labour group Union Vereinigung Cockpit confirmed the letter was sent to the carrier’s staff. Ryanair said this week it would need to cut 900 jobs as it grapples with slumping fares, uncertainty around Brexit and a slowdown in expansion forced by the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max jetliner. The letter from Gruber seems to offer more scope for negotiation than at Ryanair, which said posts need to go and that the only question is where. <br/>
A court in Rome has confirmed a E1.85m (US$2m) fine against Ryanair for improperly cancelling numerous flights during September and October 2017. News agency ANSA said the court Thursday rejected appeals by the carrier to the fine levied by Italian anti-trust authorities for unfair commercial practices after it cancelled flights due to previously known organisational or management issues. In addition, anti-trust authorities said that Ryanair misled passengers by offering to either refund or change the ticket, without informing them of further rights to compensation. Under EU regulations, passengers are due compensation for cancelled flights if informed within 14 days of the scheduled departure, as long as the airline cannot claim extraordinary circumstances. <br/>