Ryanair tell pilot: You were fired six weeks ago
22.06.08
Ryanair sent one of its rostered pilots a P45 backdated by six weeks, the Times reports. Whist he was technically sacked, he had completed dozens of flights for Ryanair.
Ulrik Holm, a Danish pilot based at East Midlands Airport, had been in dispute with Ryanair over his contract, but said he was ‘gobsmacked’ to return home from a flight to find mail that informed him he had been ‘fired’ six weeks previously. Between August 10 last year, the day Ryanair terminated his contract, and September 17, the day he received his P45, he flew 48 Ryanair flights mainly from England and Ireland.
The then 60-year-old had been asked to sign up with Brookfield Aviation, a subcontracting company that provides pilots to Ryanair. The airline explained to him that it was against company policy to employ pilots over the age of 60.
Mr Holm, who was also employed as a simulator instructor, resisted being moved to a subcontracting company. He told the newspaper: ‘I had no warning that I was to be taken off the payroll or that they were sending me my P45. I immediately checked with Dublin whether I was still on the roster for training the next day and I was. I didn’t understand why they cut me off the payroll.’
He was then told by a Ryanair manager that he ‘had to go contract’ with Brookfield Aviation. He agreed to sign with the contractor on the basis that Ryanair would pay him for work he did after they ended his contract. Mr Holm continued to fly as a contract pilot for Ryanair until last March, when he took a case for unfair dismissal. His case was settled out of court and he now works for a different airline.
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