Ryanair has sacked six members of cabin crew who were seen pictured on the floor of a Spanish airport

News24xx.com -  After six members of cabin crew of an airplane were seen lying on the floor of a Spanish airport last month, Ryanair has sacked them.

The six crew members were pictured lying side by side on the floor of Malaga Airport on the Costa del Sol on October 14 2018  after four of the company’s planes destined for Porto, Portugal, had to be diverted to Malaga in Storm Leslie. 

The six people photographed were part of a group from eight pilots and 16 cabin crew members based in Portugal, who were stranded in the Spanish airport and argued that they were left with just eight seats between them for the night.

The image was widely shared online, but Ryanair argued that the crew members only spent a short period of time in the crew room. Because, the group were then moved to VIP lounge at 6am to sleep on shared sofas, before flying back to Porto the following day. Ryanair argued as it was a national holiday in Spain, hotels were fully booked.

But, on Monday, the company sacked the staff involved. The six staff were sacked on the grounds of gross misconduct after staging the ‘fake photograph’, Ryanair said.

Luciano Passo, head of the SNPVAC cabin crew union, called Ryanair’s decision ‘awful’ and vowed to swiftly respond to the decision. The union’s legal team are now dealing with the matter.

A spokesman told Metro Online, "All 6 cabin crew members in Porto were dismissed on Mon 5 Nov for breach of contract on grounds of gross misconduct, after staging a fake photograph to support a false claim (widely reported in international media outlets) that they were ‘forced to sleep on the floor’ of the Malaga crew room, which was behaviour which damaged their employer’s reputation and caused an irreparable breach of trust with 6 persons."

Ryanair posted CCTV footage on social media showing the crew members ‘staging’ the photo and laying down on the floor of the crew room to pose for the photograph which went viral. 

However, the airline still faced a backlash from those claiming that if the staff members had been placed in proper accommodation.

 

 

 

 

 

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