Fórsa has asked Ryanair to defer a scheduled meeting of its European Works Council (EWC), due to take place on Tuesday 12th November, to allow the Labour Court time to investigate a dispute relating to Ryanair’s refusal to open nominations for the Irish representatives of the EWC. 
The Labour Court will hear the matter on Thursday 2nd December, following a referral from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after facilitated talks last week failed to resolve the dispute.

The case concerns the composition of the airline’s newly established EWC, as Fórsa maintains a nomination procedure is required for the two Irish representatives before the body is established. 

A European Works Council (EWC) is an information and consultation body that represents European workers on transnational issues in multinational companies with more than 1,000 employees, and operations in at least two EU or EEA countries. EWCs comprise employees’ representatives from each country that is a member of either, or both, the European Union and the EEA, in which a business has employees.
Ryanair contends that the membership of the company’s former Special Negotiating Body (SNB), formed in 2022, should automatically become the members of its incoming EWC.

Fórsa’s position is that the relevant legislation (Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act (1996)) requires that the SNB exists only to negotiate an EWC agreement and automatically dissolves on its ceasing to have that function, so a nomination process for EWC representatives is necessary.

 
Fórsa national secretary Katie Morgan said: “Fórsa wants Ryanair to postpone the scheduled EWC meeting to allow the Labour Court time to hear the case. We believe this is a reasonable and necessary step to ensure the proper establishment of a representative and legally sound council,” she said.

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