For the first time, low-cost airline Ryanair has signed a formal collective agreement with a Swedish trade union, the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union. The agreement offers a small measure of consolation for the Swedish model after IF Metall was forced to end its three-year strike against Tesla without success.
The collective agreement between Ryanair and the Transport Workers’ Union covers cabin crew and has been in force since 1 September. From a trade union perspective, the fact that the low-cost airline has signed a formal collective agreement in Sweden is a significant development.
Read this article in Swedish on Arbeidsliv i Norden
Ryanair has been known for its hard-line anti-union stance, ever since the EU aviation market was deregulated in 1997. As well as refusing to sign collective agreements, the company has engaged in what is known as ‘regime shopping’ between the legal systems of EU member states.
The basic principle is that workers’ terms and conditions of employment are governed by the law of the country where they habitually carry out their work, or from which they habitually do so. For flight crew, however, it is not always easy to determine which country that is.
Companies can exploit this to the detriment of workers by claiming that they are employed in countries whose rules on wages, working hours, social security contributions and pensions are most favourable to the employer.
Another way of avoiding obligations under employment law has been to hire...
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