SHARE
COPY LINK

RYANAIR

Ryanair appeals Norway ‘slave contract’ case

Ryanair has appealed to Norway's Supreme Court in a last bid attempt to stop dismissed former stewardess Alessandra Cocca from having her case heard in a Norway.

Ryanair appeals Norway 'slave contract' case
Alessandra Cocca (left) - Cornelius Poppe / Scanpix NTB
The Irish budget airline's lawyers, Haavind, said the August ruling against it by the country's Court of Appeal should be invalidated as the judge, Kristin Robberstad,had previously been employed by Norway's LO labour union, which had advised Cocca on her case. 
 
"The High Court committed a procedural error which in Ryanair's view must lead to invalidity," Haavind wrote in the appeal. "Alternatively, the case be dismissed by the Norwegian courts." 
 
Cocca, who has likened her employment agreement with Ryanair to a "slave contract", wants to have her case heard in Norway, where she was based and where employee protection is much stronger than in Ireland. 
 
Ryanair argues that as Cocca was employed by an Irish recruitment firm under an Irish contract and worked on Irish registered aircraft, the case should be subject to Irish law. 
 
Cocca, an Italian, was based in Norway, operating out of Ryanair’s hub at the Rygge airport south of Moss.
 
She claims she was wrongly dismissed after she reported that the head of cabin crew on a flight she was working on smelled of alcohol.
 
Parat, the Norwegian labour union which is managing the case welcomed the appeal, saying that if the Supreme Court backed the Appeal Court's judgement it would set a precedent which would leave the airline open to similar suits across Europe. 
 
“The Supreme Court’s handling will, regardless of its outcome, have consequences, not just in Norway but in all of Europe," Parat's Vegard Einan said.
 
Parat hopes the case will eventually mean that Ryanair can no longer undercut its competition in Europe by keeping staff on Irish contracts under Irish employment law. 
 
“If Parat wins, it will be a victory for fair competition, in a world where it earlier has paid off to ignore national laws at the expense of serious airlines.” he told NTB.
 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

RYANAIR

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over ‘fake bomb threat’

Polish police said Monday they were investigating a fake bomb threat that forced a Ryanair passenger plane travelling from Dublin to Krakow to make an emergency landing in Berlin.

UPDATE: Ryanair passenger jet makes emergency landing in Berlin over 'fake bomb threat'
A Ryanair flight making an emergency landing

The flight from Dublin to Krakow made the unexpected diversion after a reported bomb threat, German newspaper Bild Zeitung said.

“We were notified by the Krakow airport that an airport employee received a phone call saying an explosive device had been planted on the plane,” said regional police spokesman, Sebastian Glen.

“German police checked and there was no device, no bomb threat at all. So we know this was a false alarm,” he told AFP on Monday.

“The perpetrator has not been detained, but we are doing everything possible to establish their identity,” Glen added, saying the person faces eight years in prison.

With 160 people on board, the flight arrived at the Berlin Brandenburg airport shortly after 8 pm Sunday, remaining on the tarmac into early Monday morning.

A Berlin police spokesperson said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The passengers will resume their journey to Poland on board a spare aeroplane,” she told AFP, without giving more precise details for the alert.

The flight was emptied with the baggage also searched and checked with sniffer dogs, German media reported.

The passengers were not able to continue their journey until early Monday morning shortly before 4:00 am. The federal police had previously classified the situation as harmless. The Brandenburg police are now investigating the case.

Police said that officers had completed their security checks “without any danger being detected”.

“The Ryanair plane that made an emergency landed reported an air emergency and was therefore immediately given a landing permit at BER,” airport spokesman Jan-Peter Haack told Bild.

“The aircraft is currently in a safe position,” a spokeswoman for the police told the newspaper.

The incident comes a week after a Ryanair flight was forced to divert to Belarus, with a passenger — a dissident journalist — arrested on arrival.

And in July last year, another Ryanair plane from Dublin to Krakow was forced to make an emergency landing in London after a false bomb threat.

READ ALSO: Germany summons Belarus envoy over forced Ryanair landing

SHOW COMMENTS