Ryanair tried to slash my pay €10k, says pilot

A former Ryanair pilot, who once wrote a letter to the Financial Times claiming the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, should be replaced by a junior to reduce costs, claims he would still be working for the company if it had not been “completely unreasonable”.

Capt Morgan Fischer claims he was constructively dismissed by Ryanair following a decision to close its base in Marseilles after a dispute with the French authorities over where airline staff should pay their tax.

He claims he was forced to resign after refusing to sign a contract which would have seen him transferred to a base 2,000km away in Eastern Europe and his basic salary reduced by €10,000.

Capt Fischer, 45, said he did not know what motive Ryanair had in its decision to move him to Kaunas — Lithuania’s second largest city. He was unaware of whether Mr O’Leary had any role in the decision.

At a previous hearing of the tribunal Capt Fischer likened the location to “Siberia”.

Although the American said he did not think he had been victimised by the no-frills airline, he believed they were “completely unreasonable” in trying to transfer him to Kaunas and lower his salary without any consultation as he and his wife had a newborn child at the time. “I would still be with Ryanair if they were reasonable with me. I loved my job,” he said.

Under cross examination by Martin Hayden SC for Ryanair, he admitted arranging to have his car shipped back to the US before the conclusion of Ryanair’s grievance procedures because he didn’t think “it would result in a satisfactory outcome”.

He accepted that he achieved a satisfactory outcome to an earlier use of the grievance procedure on an unrelated matter, although it had taken almost a year to resolve and then only as a result of the direct intervention of Mr O’Leary.

The tribunal heard that Capt Fischer has also been awarded a total of €148,000 by the French courts in a case relating to pensions. However, he said he hadn’t yet received any compensation as Ryanair has appealed the ruling.

Ryanair’s deputy director of flight operations, Peter Bellew, described Capt Fischer’s claims that he was unaware of the possible closure of the Marseilles base until he received a letter on Oct 13, 2010 as “ridiculous”. Mr Bellew said the vast majority of other pilots in Marseilles had already submitted their preference for transfer to another base before that date.

However, Michael Landers, a representative for the Irish Airline Pilots Association said Capt Fischer had never received any documentation from Ryanair before Oct 2010 requiring him to nominate a new base.

The hearing is due to conclude today after legal summations by both parties. The tribunal will reserve its ruling until a later date.