Budget airline Ryanair says it has agreed a set of principles with three cabin crew unions in Italy, which will form the basis of a collective labour agreement (CLA).
In a statement on Friday, the airline said it met with the FIT CISL, Anpac and Anpav cabin crew unions in Rome on Thursday, where “a set of agreed principles were signed”.
“The parties agreed that they are now in the final stages of concluding final terms and conditions of a CLA,” the statement said.
Ryanair's chief people officer, Eddie Wilson, said the CLA will "start from next month" and follows recent agreements with Forsa in Ireland and with Unite in the UK.
“We expect to sign this first CLA for our Italian cabin crew before the end of September, which will lead to significant pay improvements and other benefits for our Italian based cabin crew,” he said.
The agreed principles, according to Ryanair, include that the agreement will run until the end of December 2021 and be governed by Italian law and the Italian courts. They will also deliver increased pay under a new pay structure and introduce an Italian pensions scheme as well.
The deal comes as Ryanair faces a series of strikes across five countries. As of yesterday, strike action was threatened in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
While FIT CISL, Anpac and Anpav have signed on to the agreement, the Uiltrasporti union in Italy was not mentioned in the airline’s statement. Reuters reported yesterday that a Ryanair spokesman said the airline didn’t recognise the “small” Uiltrasporti union.
