Ryanair flight attendants paid half the going rate, contends union

More heat on low-cost airline

Ryanair flight attendants are paid less than half of what their peers at Cimber earn.

According to a statement by Flyvebranchens Personale Union (FPU), a newly-hired attendant at Cimber Air is guaranteed 21,700 kroner per month. A worker doing the same job for the company Crew Link, a major supplier of flight attendants to Ryanair, earns no more than 10,000 kroner per month.

“It is crazy and a sin that Ryanair expects adult people to live on a full-time salary of less than 10,000 kroner a month,” Anders Mark Jensen, a deputy chairman of the FPU,  told avisen.dk.

“You cannot live on that kind of money in Danish society.”

Salary is one of the major points of contention in the ongoing controversy between the trade unions and Ryanair.

Union battles
The battle over pay and working conditions are part of the case today being submitted before Arbejdsretten, the industrial court. Various unions are considering cases against Ryanair.

The 10,000 kroner salary is based on a contract that was intended for employees of the temp agency Crew Link that Ryanair intended to use in Copenhagen.

Ryanair said it it is using flight attendants employed directly by the company in Copenhagen.

READ MORE: The employment advocates strike back: Ryanair-Jensen Twitter battle continues

The airline has not documented what a flight attendant in Copenhagen is paid, but the company average appears to be about 15,000 kroner before tax.

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