IAA REPLY TO RYANAIRDONTCARE CAMPAIGN AT LAST....

Friday, 25 February 2011

IAA REPLY TO RYANAIRDONTCARE CAMPAIGN...

http://irishaviationauthority.blogspot.com/2011/02/irish-aviation-authority-must-protect.html

Above is the letter ryanairdontcare campaign sent to IAA on 3rd January 2011.Below is their reply to ryanairdontcare campaign.

Dear Mr Foley,
I refer to yourletter of 12th January 2011 to our chairman,Ms Anne Nolan and also your letter to the undersigned dated 28th December regarding Ryanair airport standby duties and security.

The Irish Aviation Authority has responsibility for the regulation of safety standards within the Irish Aviation Industry through;
.Certifying and registering aircraft airworthiness;
.Licensing personnel and organisations involved in aircraft maintenance;
.Licensing pilots,air traffic controllers and aerodromes;
.Approving and monitoring air carrier operating standards.

Internationally-set safety standards emanating from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA),EUROCONTROL, the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC),the European Aviation Safety Agency(EASA)and the European Union (EU) guide the IAA in ensuring that Irish Civil Aviation operates to the most stringent safety standards.

In order to address your concerns regarding Ryanair airport standby duties I would like to clarify the EU regulations covering Flight and Duty Time Limitations and Rest Reguirements.

The EU Regulation state that a ''DUTY'' shall be defined as ''ANY TASK'' that a crew member is reguired to carry out associated with the business of the AOC Holder (The Operator) and that the National Aviation Authority (IAA) shall define in its prvisions;

1,Whether and to what extent standby is to be accounted for as duty.
2,Where airport standby is immediately followed by a flight duty,the relationship between such airport standby and the assigned flight duty.

The IAA has defined that time spent on airport standby shall count as full duty time and that if crew member is required to report for a flight duty while on airport standby then the allowable flight duty period (FDP) is calculated using the start time of the standby duty.

As a result of the above IAA provisions for flight time limitations (FTL) it is considered that it is not a requirement that flight crew be continuously located in an area,that is not open to the public.while on airport standby.

Some National Authorities have defined that if a crew member is required to report for a flight duty while on airport standby then the allowable flight duty period (FDP) is calculated from the time the crew member reports for the flight duty and not from the start time of the airport standby.In such circumstances it is considered that flight crew be located in an area not open to the public while on airport standby.

As the Ryanair FDP counts in full from the start of the airport standby duty it is not deemed necessary that accommodation be provided in an area not open to the public.
The IAA does not consider Ryanair FTL scheme to be in breach of any regulation.

In relation to the issue raised about terminated cabin crew and breaches of security.the Department of Transport has responsiblility for these matters.You may find it helpful to forward your complaint in writing to the security division.

I trust this resonse addresses the concerns raised in your letter.

Yours sincerely

Claire O'Donoghue
Senior Avistion Executive
Corporate Affairs

IAA WANT BLOG CLOSED DOWN...SORRY NO THANKS...

LETTER OFF THE IRISH AVIATION AUTHORITY 17th February 2011  http://irishaviationauthority.blogspot.com/ 

Dear Mr Foley,
I have just come across a blog entitled 'Irish Aviation Authority Blog'

The blog was not set up by the Irish Aviation Authority,and it appears that you may be the author of it.Members of the public may be misled into believing that the blog is established or endorsed by the Irish Aviation Authority. I an not commenting on the views expressed on the blog,but ask that you change the name and remove all references to the Irish Aviation Authority blog.

Yours sincerely


Paddy Kennedy
General Manager Corporate Affairs

 

The Blog here  http://irishaviationauthority.blogspot.com/ 

RYANAIR MEMO...NOT PAID TO TRAIN

To All Crew

From Orsolya Szasz

Date 08/02/2011

Ref Refresher Manual Handling Training


Dear Crew Member,
All crew members are required to complete the refresher manual training.
All crew must read and confirm you have completed the refresher manual handling training by clicking the box at the end of the document.
If you still have any questions after completing the course,or would like to practise any of the recommendations,please get in touch in instructor or base supervisor in your base.

kind regards
ORSOLYA SZASZ
In-Flight Training Department.

John Said,  (in instructor ) these words were in memo.....
This is word for word MEMO from Ryanair,Europe's lowest waged airline...
As you can see training is done in your own time and not paid by ryanair....

RYANAIR FREEZE PAY IN LINING THEIR POCKETS AGAIN and AGAIN.

Im sure you all have heard somewhere or another that Ryanair made a Q3 loss of €10,but can still manage to make a predicted €300+million after tax profit at year end.So what does this mean for staff of Ryanair:

For the 3rd YEAR running now Ryanair,WFI,Crewlink etc will FREEZE pay again for employees.How you ask?It is stipulated in our contracts that should the company suffer two CONSECUTIVE quarter losses that a pay freeze will automatically apply.
But what Ryanair is doing is paying off obscure debts in Q2/Q3 meaning that they will make a "technical" loss meaning that they can freeze pay again and save themselves more money for the future:

For example: They paid out a €500 dividend to Share holders in October 2010,so why didnt they just pay out €450 and make a slight profit?Well that would have ment that they would have to give us a pay raise inline with our contracts,along with all the other staff in Ryanair and management.Bonuses would have to be paid etc.
But it makes no odds to MoL,Bonderman and Co. as they make there bonuses on the shares that they own and sell at a now massively inflated price at year end due to a huge profit and the HUGE SAVINGS(wages) that they have made.

Aswell as this MoL,Bonderman and Co. own all of the leasing companies for leasing aircraft to Ryanair but if you look closely at the Q3 report from 2009/10 financial year and the Q3 report from 2010/2011 financial year you can see that aircraft leasing from MoL or Bondermans OWN COMPANIES has risen from €69.6million in '09/'10 --> €74.1million in '10/'11 so management who said that they were also taking a pay freeze and no bonuses have actually been linning there own pockets through "subsiduary" companies that they own!How can we know this?

MoL as stated in a blog earlier on this site is as big a lier as Hitler was,Ryanair claims to have a "Brand new fleet of 250 boeing 737-800 aircraft",but wait a minute,Ryanair dont actually own most of there aircraft,the aircraft actually belong to MoL etc leasing companies that inturn lease them to Ryanair!If you look rather closely at the Q3 report you would notice that "Deprication" costs are rather low considering that annual depreciation rates on civil aviation jets is in the region of 7.5-10% of its overall cost.
This getting deep I know but have a look:

 With the average 737-800 aircraft costing $55million(€41million) then the math would be:
7.5%(depreciation) of €41million(Aircraft cost) = €3.2million per annum depreciation per aircraft then mulitiply this by 250(the number  of 737-8 Ryanair say they own) so there annual depreciation bill should be well over €800million(not to mention depreciation of company cars,computes property etc) not the €200.1million that they mention in there report.
So where is this annual aircraft depriciation bill?Well you guessed right,the costs are on the leasing companies books that MoL,Bonderman and Co. own!

I know a lot of you will read this and say its to deep to look at,or its stupid,but the fact of the matter is that the company is a very corrupt,deceptful company.They phrase things in such a way that it may seem true at face value,but look closely and its a different story.
This comes back to O'Leary on Joe Duffys show,saying that Ryanair dont charge for training,technically RYANAIR dont,but the companies that supply Ryanair cabin crew do.RYANAIR do provide training technically for free,but this is after cabin crew have paid thousands to Dalmac,Crewlink etc to actually be crew.
Ryanair has been decieving people for years crew,pilots and the general public,this is only a small example of where Ryanair gets there "Low Fares" from.They shaft there own staff and decieve them to keep there own pockets full!

On a closing note:
Im sure you have heard MoL waffle on about "High Fare,fuel surcharging airlines" but some might ask what does that mean?
Well BA for example charge a fuel surcharge of £24 for a return flight to Prague(A Ryanair route aswell),and a ticket with BA costs £100 return plus £24 f/s,so total is £124.New fuel charge brings it up to £130!
When the price of fuel goes up so does the price of the surcharge.So BA announced several weeks ago that the price was going up,they made it very transperant.

But MoL who uses this surcharge as a weapon of advertising propaganda also charges a fuel surcharge,but does it in his usual underhand,decieving way.
Ryanair do the same route return for £110,with no fuel surcharge in December,but then come the increase in fuel MoL said quote on quote "Ticket prices will rise by 10-12% in the next year to reflect our higher fuel costs",so the same ticket now costs you £121.Why?Because fuel is more expensive,so therefor Ryanair has slapped on a "Fuel Surcharge" but called it something different,"a Ticket price increase due to rising fuel costs".

But wait a minute,BA did the same thing,but kept there own ticket price at the same price but upped a fuel surcharge that was beyond there control.
Not only does Ryanair just hike the ticket price up,they do so in a way that may not reflect the actual increase in fuel costs,where as British Airways fuel surcharge is very transperant and can easily be checked against fuel prices(if your that concerned).
Another example of Ryanairs lies and  phrasology that the use to pull the wool over your eyes....

Ryanair is a complex mechanism,wrapped within an enigma and kept within a matrix,they are a maze within a maze of lies,decept and half truths.The general public will nearly always try for a cheaper deal,but you need to understand where its coming from and who suffers..
The staff,whethers its pilots,cabin crew,cleaners or accountants the only people who win is MoL and Co.

RYANAIR DISMISSED A PILOT BUT SAID,YOUR WELCOME TO COME BACK IF YOU PAY €8,000.

A Captain in Stanstead was dismissed from Ryanair for failing to complete a 6 sector day.The cabin crew and flight deck had there phones switched off (as we have been instructed to do by Eimer O'Callaghan) and couldnt be contacted about the extra flight they had to do,so the Captain was sacked!
But he has been offered to come back to the company as a First Officer(co-pilot) and told he must pay €8,000  for the flight that got cancelled as a result oh him having his phone switched off.

SHAME ON YOU RYANAIR.......................

RYANAIR SELF EMPLOYMENT SCAM, SAID THE DAILY MIRROR

Daily Mirror Campaign – Gizza Proper Job


GMB is supporting the Daily Mirror’s campaign – Gizza Proper Job.

Bogus self-employment - a scam where an employer falsely declares their staff to be self-employed in order to avoid paying employer's National Insurance along with basic employment rights – directly affects hundreds of thousands of workers in Britain and indirectly affects every taxpayer.

Lack of enforcement by an understaffed HMRC and lack of clarity over the legal definition of self-employment leaves employers free to exploit loopholes to cut their costs.



Bogusly self-employed workers don't get sick pay, holiday pay, redundancy rights, can't claim Jobseeker's Allowance if the work dries up and won't even qualify for a full state pension when they retire.



It's endemic in a number of key industries and services, for example, construction, taxi driving and courier driving, and growing in others, for example, retail, cleaning and other service industries, aviation and journalism. We've even heard of the first self-employed mineworkers!



The Daily Mirror's Gizza Proper Job campaign has identified a number of household names - RYANAIR, Addison Lee, Hermes Parcelnet, Barrett Homes and charity collectors used by British Red Cross, RSPCA, among others - that unfairly designate their staff self-employed.



Construction workers are three times more likely to be self-employed. The Treasury estimates up to 300,000 construction workers could be bogusly self-employed and puts the costs to the Treasury at ￡350m a year. Prof Mark Harvey, of the University of Essex , believes the figure is higher and costs over £1.7bn a year in lost tax.



Courier drivers are routinely designated self-employed despite working for the same engager for years, delivering parcels at set times and finding it hard to take time off. After paying for their vehicle, fuel and insurance, below minimum wages are common.



Factory and agricultural workers, frequently from eastern Europe, work "self-employed" for gangmasters with no security for below minimum wage. Romanian and Bulgarian workers are particularly vulnerable to this exploitation as they can only work as self-employed "entrepreneurs", except for some rare circumstances.



Bogus self-employment typically increases after a recession and this one's no different. Numbers of self-employed reached a record 4m last year, increasing as employees lose jobs.



The campaign already is supported by TUC and a string of unions including Unite, GMB and UCATT. Ed Miliband signed up shortly after becoming party leader and the Gangmasters' Licencing Authority supports the campaign after seeing similar problems in the agricultural sector.

2 EMAILS SENT TO RYANAIRDONTCARE CAMPAIGN FROM ''SO CALLED RYANAIR PILOTS.

Our campaign has been sent 2 emails over the last few weeks and we believe it has Ryanair written all over them.
Ryanair trying to get information from me about our campaign..
Bonderman ''hyipocrite''tpg capital and O'Leary''the mouth'' you can contact me anytime,you have my personal details....Our campaign is honest,not for profit but for human life....

LETTER SENT TO IAA,Irish Airline Pilots' Association,BALPA and Ryanair European Pilots' Association..

Dear Irish Aviation Authority,
We are a campaign ryanairdontcare that deals with the wrongs of recruitment and termination on probationary ryanair cabin crew.

(We have terminated and present cabin crew at ryanair in contact with our campaign and some facts are given to us from present cabin crew at ryanair.
The message below is very concerning with regards safety on board ryanair flight,to which i would hope,as you are the Aviation Authority in Ireland and ryanair are a registered in Ireland.you would act on this message below which was sent to ryanairdontcare.


(To whom may concern,

I'm currently crew contracted to Ryanair via Workforce International Contractors.When I went to the interview I asked a very specific question,as anyone would,what was the average salary?The staff giving us the talk told me that it would be £1000-1200 after tax.
I was rather excited by this,so I pressed on and accepted the the offer for training.The training cost including accommodation was €2700 plus €200 deposit at the start of the course.As I was informed that my wages would be £1000+ I took the 'training loan' offered by Dalmac(Workforces client training school),the loan covered all costs of the course and would be deducted from my wages on a monthly basis for 11 months.All students had to open a new loan account with AIB Rush branch,even if you already had a AIB current account else where in Ireland or if you were paying on your own accord.

Unfortunately once we started working for Workforce International the reality was a lot different to what we were promised,in terms of salary.Within my first 6 months my salary averaged after tax £732,then on top of this they began deducting my loan repayments direct from my wages in my second month.I also had to pay for my uniform which was a further £25,so all in all from the £732 I was averaging I had £291 + £25 taken directly from my wages.

After my third month I was in severe financial difficulties due to the fact that my base was 'over crewed' and we were given roughly 40 hours p/m to work with.We complained and complained to Workforce International that we were suffering terrible due to the lack of hours available to us,but they kept on sending new crew to the base ensuring that the few hours available were even further divided which added to our woes!

I struggled to feed myself for months,I sold most of my posses ions,including my laptop just so I could afford my rent and be able to commute to work.The only thoughts in my head day in and day out for months was,my personal finances,wages,rent,food it was an extremely difficult time dealing with all these worries due to the fact that Ryanair had put in a position of being given next to no hours,but yet 'fleeching' us to pay back the 'training loan'.I asked Workforce to reduce my loan repayments so I could better survive on the hours we were given,but they refused,even though they knew that we were coming out with £400/500 to live on,pay rent with,feed ourselves and commute work with.
They didn't even make any effort to help us with our situation,we were left to our own devices in a foreign country,struggling to survive.I contacted AIB directly to ask them about an extension on my loan,or reduce my repayments to something more manageable,but I had no access to the account and could not change any part of it.

The training loan offered to students is given with no financial background checks done,the loan is given on the basis that you will earn €17,750 in your first year.But all these facts are completely wrong the fact of it is,that the loan is given to students without any consideration whatsoever to there ability to be able to repay the loan without sacrificing your mental health (Depression)and general welfare.It has been a very dark part of my life and has left me further in debt due to further borrowing to survive.
Students are offered no protection whatsoever should they be unable to work,or be given no work whatsoever.I tried to get partial unemployment benefits to help survive,but due to Ryanairs nature of keeping cabin crew on 3/4 p/w, unpaid standbys at home you are still technically in "Full Time" employment and are entitled to nothing.We worked on average p/w 10 hours,but yet were granted a nearly €3,000 loan!Had I have applied for loan under these circumstances to any other banking establishment,I would have been due to the fact that I could not physically repay the loan without inherent risks on defaulting.Ryanair and agents are benefiting financially so much through us.

At this present time myself and many more probationary cabin crew at ryanair are depressed and no one will help us.The safety of board ryanair flights could be in jeopardy as a result of how we, as cabin crew feel...

Ryanair cabin crew.
Thank you very much for your time,)


I would hope the IAA would look into these issues to which cabin crew have said above.Talking to ryanair with regards these issues,cabin crew feel unable to do with fear of TERMINATION.

I have also informed you with regards the uniform issue of terminated crew,which makes many ryanair uniforms and airport ID cards available in the public domain and could be used to gain access to ryanair aircraft.This is a very serious safety and security issue to which you have never replied to.
Information will now be sent to the Irish press,showing them details of correspondences i have sent to you,with out a response or action being taken from the IAA.

Yours sincerely


John Foley
Ryanairdontcare Campaign.

John Said,
The IAA must act NOW..The pilot unions must do more....

RYANAIR PILOT

Ryanair Pilot said:

 

I am a Ryanair Pilot and I speak from experience and what I say here is fact not spun out fiction.
There are many implications relating to the Brookfied Aviation contractors associated with Ryanair, some of which may not be obvious to the general public and the fare paying customers of Ryanair.
The whole reason that Brookfied Aviation was set up was so that Ryanair could shy away from it’s social welfare contributions as stated above and so that the pilots would have no employment rights. The manager of Brookfield Aviation is the ex-head of Ryanair HR, Declan Dooney. Mr. Dooney left Ryanair to set up the desired pilot contract workforce for Ryanair and this has grown to a massive scale due to the percentage of contractor pilots currently in Ryanair, about 65%. Various government bodies around Europe (excluding the UK) have questioned the legality of this practice and this is why the pilots are now forced to set up limited companies in Dublin with one of three Brookfield selected accountants (who take a mandatory 3% from their salaries) so that they can pay their taxes in Ireland, this is how they pacified the Irish Government. The limited company idea is only a temporary reprieve for them because Brookfield is only enforcing the new terms onto new pilots and allowing the existing contractors to remain on any scheme that they wish, even when their contracts are being renewed. There are hundreds of Brookfield pilots either not paying tax at all or paying through offshore dubious schemes in the IOM, Jersey, etc. In many cases these are people who live and work in the UK, so the UK government is missing out on a lot of tax and appears to be less interested than many other European counties, despite the fact that we are supposed to be cracking down on all illegal tax schemes.
So, the financial effect is the more obvious but there are more important effects to. The pilots are paid by the flying hour and their volume of work is totally dependant on the rostering department of Ryanair giving them some work. Often pilots are not being paid much money, especially in the winter months. Due to inconsistent income and pilots who are running into financial difficulties, often unable to pay their mortgages etc. result = PILOT STRESS.
The pilots are NOT allowed to seek work elsewhere because when they are not rostered for work they are on standby for the company to use them at a moments notice if they wish, this is every airline’s operational requirement but all other airlines pay a salary for that privilege. Some pilots in these winter months are flying two may be three days per month which means that they are earning less than £1000 per month, result = PILOT STRESS.
There is no sick pay, so human nature is to go to work when one is not really up to it, I’ve seen people in work very ill indeed. Despite the fact that the pilots are not employed by Ryanair they have to provide an official doctor’s sick note for any sickness whatsoever.
Brookfield pilots are often rostered to work from another European base at very short notice, they have to pay all associated travel and hotel costs themselves upfront even if they haven’t been earning any money for several months and therefore can’t afford to do so, result = PILOT STRESS. When rostered to fly from another base the days spent getting to and from that base are known in the industry as “duty days” There are certain legal flight time limitations in place to prevent pilots being fatigued and therefore not safe to fly, one of those limitations is the number consecutive duty days in a certain period and another is the length of each duty day. Ryanair refuses to accept that the days spent travelling are in fact duty days, but it clearly states in the official legal documentation that any days spent travelling at the behest of the company are “duty days” This can easily be conformed with the Civil Aviation Authority. result = PILOT STRESS and FLIGHT SAFETY ISSUE.
You may be wondering why I and many others put up with it, its because there is nothing else available in the UK which is why many UK pilots are now seeking employment in the Middle and Far East.
All in all I have used the phrases PILOT STRESS and FLIGHT SAFETY ISSUE where appropriate but PILOT STRESS is in itself a FLIGHT SAFETY ISSUE so the hidden effect of the illegal contractor pilots and dictatorship attitude is FLIGHT SAFETY and should be addressed by the Civil Aviation Authority and The Irish Aviation Authority before it’s too late, its unsafe! The Irish Aviation Authority appears to be entirely disinterested in the wrong doings of Ryanair due to its very close relationship with Mr O’Leary and his fellow directors.
If any journalist were to challenge Ryanair on these issues I’m sure that they would refuse to comment because this is all based on fact and they couldn’t possibly justify any of it.