These are the conditions which the low-fare airline Ryanair recently offered to about 30 of its employees – without counting the pilots – in Portugal. The story was first reported by the Portuguese newspaper Journal de Notícias.
The article, which was first published on 13 August, states that Ryanair offered a base salary of €588 gross per month to staff recruited by a temporary employment agency that works exclusively for the airline. This despite Portugal’s minimum legal wage being fixed at €635.
Those not interested in the offer could choose another option: Expatriation. They were offered to work for the group either in the United Kingdom or Ireland starting on 1 September 2020. If employees were not interested in taking up either of those offers, they were sacked, according to Jornal de Notícias.
The president of the Portuguese Civil Aviation Union described these two alternatives as “indecent”. In fact, legal proceedings have been initiated against the airline for “harassment and discrimination at work”.
Ryanair’s response only added more fuel to the fire with the company stating that its employees’ payment is composed of “a certain number of elements” such as flight bonuses or commissions on products sold in flight which are added to the base salary.
