A senior pilot who is seeking a number of orders against Ryanair claimed in the High Court yesterday that a disciplinary process instituted against him by the airline had been embarked upon in bad faith.
The action, by pilot John Goss (51), Malahide, Co Dublin, against Ryanair began yesterday before Mr Justice Declan Budd and is expected to last several days.
Over the past two months, the court has heard a number of related issues between the sides, including a claim by the pilot that the company is in contempt of a court order by taking him off flying duties. He has since been restored to flying duties. Ryanair denies it is in contempt.
Among orders being sought by Mr Goss in his present action are an injunction restraining the company from continuing with a purported disciplinary procedure against him and an injunction restraining it from treating him as other than as a captain employed by the airline.
Senior counsel Roddy Horan, for Mr Goss, said his client had an exemplary record with Ryanair, which he had joined in 1986. Before that he had worked with the Air Corps. In the 1990s, he was flight safety officer, a position he later voluntarily relinquished.
Counsel said the company had a well-known antipathy to trade unions and steadfastly refused to engage with the Irish Airline Pilots' Association, which was a branch of the Impact trade union that represented commercial pilots in Aer Lingus and CityJet.
In his statement of claim Mr Goss said that in 1988/1989 he joined a trade union which had not been recognised by the company. He and his colleagues were asked by Ryanair to attend a meeting on November 4th last.
At the meeting, it was claimed, they were threatened that if union activities did not cease, they would be excluded from any pay increase, access to the company's share option scheme, promotion, staff travel privileges and loss of licence insurance. They would also be required to pay for training and retraining.
On November 12th last, Mr Goss claims, he and other pilots, who had been asked to attend the meeting, received a letter from Ryanair offering a place on a conversion training course for a new aircraft. However, they would be required to pay back €15,000 in training costs to the company if they left within five years or if the company was "compelled to engage in collective bargaining with any pilot or trade union".
By letter on December 10th last, the company purported to commence an investigation into allegations against Mr Goss that he made threatening and intimidating phone calls in an attempt to persuade pilots in Stansted from accepting positions on new planes to be based in Dublin, it is claimed. Those allegations were denied.