Ryanair and unions both claim victory in battle over workers rights. Here's who should really be cheering

A ruling by the European Court of Justice has implications for an entire industry

Ryanair is battling with members of its Belgian ground crew (Getty)

Quite a busy day for Ryanair, which made the City sit up and pay attention by talking about a bid for Alitalia not long after taking a kicking at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over workers rights.

What’s that, I hear you say? Ryanair says it won the case?

Well, chutzpa is something this company, and its flamboyant boss Michael O’Leary, have never been short of.

But first the background. Ryanair hires its staff on business friendly Irish employment contracts. Hang about, say unions, this can’t be right. Our Belgian ground crew want to bring a case against you in a Belgian court for not receiving Belgian pay and entitlements.

They live in Belgium. In fact they have to reside within an hour of the Belgian airport at which they work. Yes they work for an Irish company on Irish planes. But surely they should still be able to sue in Belgium?

Erm, we’re not sure, said a Belgian court. Over to you ECJ.

Such debates aren’t uncommon in an industry in which companies fly planes registered in one country while operating multiple bases at airports in other ones, and in which carriers do everything they can to squeeze costs in an attempt to keep their prices low.

By the way, there’s an argument about whether consumers really benefit from that but that’s one for another day.

Now the ECJ has issued its ruling, the question is who has won. Ryanair, of course, says it's victory to Ryanair. Hooray for the ruling, is what it more or less said in a press release.

And you chaps in the City of London? Don’t you worry your sweet little heads. This won’t affect our costs one jot.

“This ECJ decision does not change the status quo of Irish contracts of employment for Ryanair crew based across Europe.

“Ryanair will continue to employ its crew on Irish contracts of employment, and this decision only updates the criteria for assessing the jurisdiction of national courts to hear legal cases locally.”

But that’s the important point.

And quite how it is considered a victory for Ryanair is, well, interesting.

“The Court points out first of all that, as regards disputes related to employment contracts, the European rules concerning jurisdiction are aimed at protecting the weaker party,” said the ECJ.

The weaker party, of course, being the workers. Which was why unions said, you’ve guessed it: “Hooray for the ruling!”

This sort of thing, by the way, is one reason that the Conservative Party’s nasty Thatcherites hate the ECJ, and that those British workers who backed Brexit were cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

But that too is one for another day.

What we're looking at here is Ryanair and its workers, and a case that will have implications for workers at other airlines facing the same sort of issue.

And while this battle is now over, the war continues.

The two sides will next head to a Belgian court for an answer to the following question: Are Belgian employees of an Irish company, working in Belgium, but on Irish contracts, entitled to Belgian pay and entitlements?

The implications of its decision will be felt far beyond Ryanair’s Dublin HQ, of that you can be sure.