Ryanair violated the right to strike in 2022, according to the National Court

The National Court has fully upheld the claim by the USO-STA and Sitcpla unions against Ryanair, Crewlink Ireland and Workforce International Contractors, considering that these companies violated the workers’ rights to strike and freedom of association in the 2022 calls.

In the ruling, known this Saturday and to which EFE has had access, the Social Chamber considers circumstances such as the lack of information to the Strike Committee about protected flights and the abusive use of business power to be proven, for which it considers compensation of 93,757 euros for moral damages to each plaintiff union.

The events date back to 2022, when USO-STA and Sitcpla promoted three strike calls against Ryanair, Crewlink Ireland and Workforce International Contractors, which affected all cabin crew or TCP assigned to the airline’s bases in Madrid, Malaga. , Barcelona, ​​​​Alicante, Seville, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Gerona, Santiago de Compostela and Ibiza.

The first was planned for June 24, 25 and 26 and July 1 and 2, 2022 with strikes from 00:00 to 24:00; the second, for July 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26 and 27, and the third extended the strike from August 8 of that same year to January 7, 2023.

The first two calls were promoted as a result of the breakdown of negotiations aimed at achieving a collective bargaining agreement for Ryanair cabin crew.

The Third, On The Other hand, Was Due To The Business Action That Originated More Than 200 Disciplinary Files For Initiating The Strike, Which Concluded With More Than 50 Dismissals, Reconerda, Recognizes USO-STA IN ITS Demand, Which Were Either Conciliated Or Were Declared void for violating such fundamental right.

“Radical nullity”

The unions asked the National Court for the “radical annulment” of the measures and conduct of the companies, understanding that the assignment of the minimum services occurred without advance notice, during the strike days themselves, attempting modifications to “force the operation of as many “. flights” would like the plane.

To do this, they would have used “writings in which these (the workers) were intimidated under express threat of dismissal if they did not comply with the imaginary and minimum services”, assignments that, the plaintiffs added, “flagrantly failed to comply with the provided in the resolution” of minimum services.

In addition, they denounced both the “repeated refusal” of the companies to provide the Strike Committee with the list of workers with the assignment of the corresponding protected flights, and a practice of “extreme scab.”

Now the Social Chamber sees “a directed and coordinated action” by the three defendants “tended to minimize the effects of the strike, neutralizing the negative effects that the exercise of the fundamental right of workers could produce.”

The court maintains that Ryanair, secondary to the agencies Crewlink Ireland and Workforce International Contractors, “not only violated the individual right to strike of the affected workers, but also constituted a violation of the freedom of association” of USO-STA and Sitcpla.

And the strike is “one of the essential instruments of demonstration and enhancement of said fundamental right,” concludes the ruling, which considers corroborated “the repeated will of the co-defendants to not respect the exercise of fundamental rights by its workers.”