Cancelling holidays
At the risk of wading in to what looks like a really messy workplace dispute...readers might be interested to know that Ryan Air may well have a contractual right to cancel pilot holiday.
Well drafted contractual holiday provisions will often give employers the right to cancel holidays, or indeed instruct employees when to take holidays, to cope with fluctuations in demands.
However, as with any such contractual powers, employers must exercise them reasonably, or risk breaching employees' trust and confidence.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has said the firm plans to make some pilots delay a week's holiday as it wrestles with massive flight cancellations.
His comments came at the airline's annual general meeting in Dublin.
Ryanair is cancelling 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.
Mr O'Leary said some pilots had been offered a 10,000-euro pay rise in exchange for helping out.
This is on top of a cash bonus already offered to pilots, which has been given a frosty reception.
Ryanair had offered captains a one-off payment of £12,000 or 12,000 euros, and first officers £6,000 or 6,000 euros, but representatives said they wanted new contracts and better working conditions instead.
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