THE Ryanair bonus scheme which paid out £24 million to three directors over three years, including £17 million to chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary, has been attacked by a union representing airline workers. Under the bonus scheme the executive directors were entitled to 50 per cent of the company's annual operating profits.

SIPTU negotiator at Dublin Airport Mr Paul O'Sullivan said Ryanair workers were told they could not have pay increases and extra pay for working on Sundays and bank holidays because the company could not afford it. The argument was that if pay was increased, fares would have to be increased and the company would lose passengers, he said.

"This level of bonuses for executive directors shows that this is not true. The bonuses are extraordinary. Pay at Ryanair starts as low as £3.00 per hour with no extra pay for working shifts or on Sundays or Bank holidays."

"If Mr O'Leary's latest annual bonus of £10 million was shared between the 700 staff instead, they would have got about £14,000 each," he said.

"Ryanair has pleaded the poor mouth, but the fat cats at the top creamed off the money that could have been used to pay the workforce a decent wage. Bad conditions don't apply to pay alone. Regarding staff, Ryanair operates like a revolving door. There is little or no job security and a climate of fear operates," he maintained.

The company rejected Mr O'Sullivan's comments. Director Conor McCarthy, who joined Ryanair from Aer Lingus in 1996, described the £3.00 per hour pay claim as "nonsense". The basic pay of cabin crew is £3.60 per hour but with flight related pay and commissions on duty free sales, they earn an average of £18,000 per annum, he said. Handlers earn £7.80 per hour including a 10 per cent productivity element he said.

Rejecting Mr O'Sullivan's "revolving door" he said that staff numbers were growing very quickly yet half the staff had been there for three years. "We have a very low exit rate, to claim the opposite is unfair."

Asked to comment on Mr O'Sullivan's contention that Ryanair had refused to recognise the union, he said that Ryanair would recognise the union if the majority of staff wanted it. "We have no policy of ignoring unions but we are not going to ask them in if we can do it between ourselves".

On the bonus scheme a company spokesman explained that it was set up in 1993 and terminated on March 31st, 1997. Under the scheme, the executive directors were entitled to 50 per cent of operating profits.

Some £5 million was shared between three executive directors in the year to end March 1995 and the same directors shared £8.9 million the following year. Of the £5 million bonuses paid out in 1995, Mr O'Leary got £2.5 million while brothers Mr Cathal and Mr Declan Ryan shared £2.5 million.

The 1996 bonus was shared in the same proportions with £4.45 million going to Mr O'Leary and the balance shared between Mr Cathal and Mr Declan Ryan. The Ryan brothers were no longer executive directors for the year to end March 1997 so the £9.8 million bonus went to Mr O'Leary.

Under the scheme Mr O'Leary got bonuses of £17 million over the past three years while Mr Cathal Ryan and Mr Declan Ryan shared bonuses of £7 million.

Ryanair said the performance related bonus scheme was set up to persuade Mr O'Leary to run the airline.

"The background is that the company had lost £20 million including £7 million in the year before Mr O'Leary arrived in 1991. Nobody thought then that profits would grow so rapidly. But it would be impossible to bring in outside investors with this scheme in place so it was terminated, a company source said.

Notes to the accounts in the flotation document show that the bonus payments made up £5 million of the total wages and salaries bill of £16 million in the fiscal year 1995, £8.9 million of the £20.1 million bill in year to end March, 1996, and £9.8 million of the £23.6 million bill in the year to end March, 1997.

Mr O'Leary's employment terms are set out in the flotation document. A three year contract from August 23rd,

1996, to June 30th, 1999, provides for a gross annual salary of £198,000, with bonuses of up to 50 per cent of salary. His current contract replaces an earlier one which gave him an annual salary of £100,000 and the performance bonuses outlined above.

The flotation document shows that Ryanair has taken out "Key Man" insurance on the life of the chief executive to the value of £5 million.