Ryanair pilots ‘had to drop claims’ for promotion

A SENIOR Ryanair manager has admitted the airline required pilots to confirm they had no outstanding industrial relations claims against the firm before they could be considered for promotion.

Peter Bellew, Ryanair’s general manager of flight operations, yesterday accepted that Ryanair made it a condition that its Dublin pilots could not be retrained on new Boeing aircraft unless all claims against the airline were dropped.

He told an Employment Appeals Tribunal he inserted such a clause in a bond which pilots had to sign to be considered for retraining.