Norway: Ryanair settles with former employee

Europe's biggest budget airline, Ryanair, has reached a settlement with a former Italian employee who sued the company over her dismissal and working conditions.
Christen Horn Johannessen, lawyer with Norway's Parat union, said today that Ryanair has agreed to pay Alessandra Cocca 570,000 kroner (USD 67,500), the equivalent of three years of salary.
Cocca was hired in 2012 as a flight attendant, and based at an airport near Oslo. Less than a year later, Cocca who compared her job to a "slave contract" and reported a senior colleague for smelling of alcohol, was dismissed.
Norwegian courts had ruled local labor laws applied because she was based in Norway, prompting Ryanair to close down its Rygge airport base, and claiming it should be in Ireland, where Ryanair is registered.

Ryanair confirmed the case had been settled, saying "the legal costs of the trial in the Norwegian courts would far exceed the settlement payment."
The case "no longer has any relevance since Ryanair no longer operates any bases in Norway.