The Labor Inspectorate has sanctioned Ryanair for not applying the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to passenger cabin crew (TCP) following a complaint that USO filed in September 2021. The amount of the fine, still to be determined, ranges from the 751 and the 7,500 euros.
The organization headed by Carmen Collado Rosique has verified that the airline Ryanair paid its first-time cabin crew members below the minimum wage. The Labor Inspectorate considers it accredited that the remuneration system of the low-cost company was governed by a double scale of payments. On the one hand, it guaranteed a fixed amount to each worker below the SMI. And, on the other, it was complemented with a variable based on the number of flights operated and the hours worked.
This double channel of income systematically caused new employees to start at the airline charging amounts below the legal minimum. The interprofessional minimum wage, which is now set at 1,080 euros in 14 payments or 1,260 euros in 12 payments, marks the minimum income that a full-time worker must receive. And the company, in no case, can pay you less. The Labor Inspectorate interprets that, while Ryanair does not specify in its contracts whether they are full-time or part-time, they are assumed to be full-time. Said interpretation is the usual one in all types of contract or unspecified employment relationship.
The facts date back to a complaint filed in September 2021. Ryanair has an atypical labor relations system, which does not specify whether its cabin crew have a full-time or part-time contract. They are paid a fixed amount each month and then add a plus for "scheduled block flight hours". The fixed amount in 2021 amounted to 8,548 gross euros per year; which in 12 payments translates into 712 gross euros per month. And in 2021 the minimum wage was set at 1,125.83 euros per month.
"The total remuneration received by employees at the end of their first month of work on behalf of the company is significantly lower than the amount established as the minimum interprofessional wage," the Labor Inspectorate accredited in its letter.
The complainant union also claimed to supervise the hourly contracts of the TCPs through the Workforce agencies and Crewlink Ireland Limited, after which other disciplinary proceedings have been opened for serious infringement.
USO points out in a press release that "regardless of whether the remuneration is directly linked to the flight hours actually carried out, the company has the obligation to guarantee the receipt, on a monthly basis, of at least the amount established as SMI".
