Representatives say little progress made, as 100 pilots due to walk out on 12 July

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Ryanair crew have warned they could join pilots in taking industrial action this summer after presenting the chief executive, Michael O’Leary, with a list of demands.

Speaking after a summit in Dublin, representatives of cabin and ground crew from across Europe said there had been little progress since O’Leary reversed a long-held policy of refusing to recognise trade unions more than six months ago.

The intervention by crew on Wednesday comes 24 hours after about 100 pilots at Ryanair’s Dublin base said they had agreed to walk out on 12 July.

The Irish no-frills carrier agreed to recognise trade unions for the first time in December last year, narrowly averting widespread Christmas strikes, after a staffing crunch gave pilots the upper hand in negotiations over pay and conditions.

However, pilots, cabin crew and ground crew are complaining that since then the airline has not done enough to improve their terms.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), a union umbrella body that represents crew at the vast majority of Ryanair’s bases, listed demands after the summit ranging from improvements to economic conditions to safety and rostering and workplace culture.

They also urged Ryanair to take steps to do away with more precarious agency employment, give staff the right to sick pay and end strictly enforced sales targets for products such as scratchcards.

“If Ryanair fails to respond promptly and appropriately then it risks industrial action over the summer,” the ITF said.

Campaigns director Liz Blackshaw said O’Leary’s concession on trade union recognition was starting to look like an “empty promise”.

“Because of conditions that have existed for many, many years, staff are frustrated that there isn’t any significant progress. We’re not expecting transformational change overnight but, given the promises made publicly in December, we’d have expected some change by now.

“There haven’t been any and workers and unions are clear on the fact that this is unacceptable.”

Ryanair said the demands were “pointless”, listing benefits it said crew already enjoyed.

“Ryanair is already engaged in extensive negotiations with national cabin crew unions across Europe during which all of these, and other issues, are being negotiated and we have already concluded agreements in the UK and Italy,” a spokesperson said.

But a trade union official in Spain said cabin crew in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium from the SITCPLA union were already planning to announce dates for a walkout on Thursday.

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Strikes threaten to cause huge disruption for holidaymakers flying with Ryanair, Europe’s largest short-haul airline by far with about 130 million passengers per year.

While Ryanair has been forced to negotiate with pilots and crew, partly due to cancellations caused by persistent staff rota problems, its financial performance has been largely unaffected by labour rights disputes.

The Dublin-based carrier announced a 10% rise in net profit to £1.3bn in May and vowed to face down any strike action.