Threats to "slash tyres" were made on a Ryanair pilots' website around the time Ryanair was seeking to retrain pilots to fly new aircraft in 2004, Ryanair's director of personnel Mr Eddie Wilson told the High Court yesterday. Things "really went over the line", gardaí were notified and an investigation was ongoing, he said.
Mr Wilson was giving evidence on the third day of proceedings in which Ryanair is seeking to identify persons communicating on a pilots' website, which messages, it is claimed, show evidence of wrongful activity against Ryanair and its employees.
In the action before Mr Justice Thomas Smyth, Ryanair is seeking a number of orders against Neil Johnston, an official with the trade union Impact, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (Ialpa) and its British counterpart, Balpa.
The airline contends the defendants have a duty to name the persons identified by the codenames "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, which claims are denied by both pilots' associations.
Mr Wilson has told the court that, in the period from October 12th, 2004, to September 2005, nobody applied to transfer to Dublin where the airline was in the process of converting its fleet to 737 800 aircraft. He had never seen that pattern before and people felt there was an air of intimidation about transferring to Dublin, he said.
He said they had indications of intimidatory behaviour and people were clearly identified with making threats of "adverse consequences" for those transferred to Dublin. It was very insidious and could have stopped the operations of the aircraft, he said.
Mr Wilson said he reported the matter to the gardaí and was asked for more information on the identity of these people. He told the gardaí Ialpa could identify them. The investigation was ongoing.
Mr Roddy Horan SC, for Impact, asked was it not vindictive for the airline to stipulate that the €15,000 pilots' retraining fee would be forfeit if they secured union recognition.
Mr Wilson said everybody knew on joining Ryanair the way the company operated. This way of operating had worked successfully for the pilots and the company for the previous 20 years.
Cross-examined by Mr Michael Cush SC, for Balpa, Mr Wilson said he had continuous access to the Repa website since January 2005. The company had got information from a pilot on how to access the site, he said.
When Mr Cush said the website was intended for the pilots to communicate with each other and was intended to be confidential, Mr Wilson agreed that confidentiality had been pierced. "As it turned out, it was the right thing to do," he said.
Mr Cush put it to Mr Wilson that the company had in November 2005 sought discovery of the postings on the Repa website in circumstances where they already had that information. Mr Wilson said he was not an expert on discovery and he may not have had everything.
The hearing continues today.
