Former Ryanair pilot Richard Phillips, along with 261 other pilots, has filed a lawsuit against Ryanair over claims that they are owed back-dated holiday pay, The Telegraph reports.

The lawsuit was filed last week in London’s Commercial Court, and the recruitment agencies Storm Global, Brookfield Aviation International and Dublin-based tax consultancy Scanlon Associates are also defendants in the group claim.

Ryanair has a history of reliance on contractor pilots who are hired through third-party agencies, and the low-cost airline has argued that it is not obliged to pay these workers sick pay or holiday pay, as they are not employees of Ryanair.

Previous court rulings

This company structure has been described as “legal fiction” by a German court ruling at the Berlin-Brandenburg State Social Court in January in a legal dispute on whether pilots at German bases were employees of Ryanair and therefore subject to social security contributions.

Another case is the Court of Appeal ruling last year, which found that Ryanair pilot Jason Lutz was employed by the airline, and not a self-employed worker. After the ruling, Ryanair was refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

This case follows a similar UK Supreme Court ruling against the ride-hailing company Uber, which found that its drivers were workers entitled to employment rights, rather than self-employed contractors.

Agency defence in aviation

The law firm representing Richard Phillips and the other pilots, Claims Compensation Group (CCG), argues that airline pilots who find work through agencies are entitled to employment rights and protections, and maintains that the Court of Appeal ruling in Jason Lutz's lawsuit has “closed the door on the agency defence in aviation”.

CCG has not disclosed the estimated value of this current lawsuit; however, it has publicly encouraged other pilots whom Ryanair or other airlines have hired through a third-party agency to come forward.