A former Ryanair official claimed in a "robust" letter sent to all the airline's pilots that, rather than spending up to £1,000 (€1,465) a year on joining a pilots' trade union, they should spend the money on "fast women, slow horses or even greyhound racing", the High Court heard yesterday.
Part of the letter, dated June 30th, 2004, was read to the court in the continuing action by Ryanair aimed at securing the identities of persons who posted messages on a Ryanair pilots website whose messages, the airline claimed, were intimidatory and showed evidence of wrongful action against Ryanair and its employees. Mr Warwick Brady, who previously worked with Ryanair as a deputy flights director in London, told the pilots in the letter that the British pilots association, Balpa, "are back" and would be looking for another ballot aimed at securing trade union recognition in the airline.
He wrote: "Let me make Ryanair's position on Balpa perfectly clear as follows: We have no objection to any Ryanair pilot joining Balpa, the Taliban, the Monster Raving Loonies or indeed the Moonies.
Each individual is perfectly free to join whatever association he/she so chooses.Balpa, in return for your membership, will charge you 1 per cent of your total salary, a sum that will amount to up to £1000 - yes, £1,000 - each year. If you want to waste £1,000, we recommend fast women, slow horses or even greyhound racing - at least you'll have a few minutes of fun, which is more than you'll have with Balpa."
Mr Brady agreed with Mr Michael Cush SC, for Balpa, that the memo represented a firm point of view on behalf of Ryanair and also agreed it was "robust".
Asked was there unrest about Ryanair's requirements for pilots to agree in 2004 to certain conditions relating to €15,000 retraining costs for flying new 737 800 aircraft acquired by Ryanair, whose sum would have to be repaid to the airline in certain circumstances, Mr Brady said it was not the normal unrest and there was something "more sinister".
In the action before Mr Justice Thomas Smyth, Ryanair is seeking a number of orders against Mr Neil Johnston, an official with the trade union MMPACT, the Irish Airline Pilots Association and its British counterpart, Balpa.
The airline contends the defendants have a duty to name the persons identified by the codename "ihateryanair", "cantfly-wontfly" and others on the Ryanair European Pilots Association (Repa) website. It claims the website was established by and is controlled by Ialpa and Balpa - claims denied by both pilots associations.
The airline also alleges the defendants sought to destroy records, registration details, databases and information relating to Repa members.
The defendants deny they established Repa, deny knowledge of the identities of Repa members communicating via codenames on the site and contend that Ryanair is not entitled to such information. They also deny the claim that information has been destroyed.
The case continues today.
