Given that TV3 had been looking for a businessman who can dismiss staff with panache, why didn’t it consider Michael O’Leary for the role of fronting The Apprentice?

Because in a move that might make Alan Sugar blush, the Ryanair chief executive has sent one of its rostered pilots a P45 backdated by six weeks. It means the aviator had completed dozens of flights for Ryanair while technically unemployed.

Ulrik Holm, a Danish pilot based at East Midlands airport near Derby in England, had been in dispute with Ryanair over his contract, but said he was “gobsmacked” to return home from a flight to find mail that informed him he had been “fired” six weeks previously.

Between August 10 last year, the day Ryanair terminated his contract, and September 17, the day he received his P45, Holm flew 48 Ryanair flights mainly from England and Ireland.

The then 60-year-old had been asked to sign up with Brookfield Aviation, a subcontracting company that provides pilots to Ryanair. The airline explained to him that it was against company policy to employ pilots over the age of 60.

An internal e-mail shows a Ryanair manager described the contract granted to Holm as a “mistake” because he was “the only person in Ryanair who is over 60 and is working for us on a Ryanair contract. It is not permitted”.

Holm, who once flew for the Royal Danish Airforce, resisted being moved to a subcontracting company. He said he had only joined Ryanair a year previously on the basis he would be a full-time employee. By September 13, while still flying his normal routes, he discovered his August pay had been reduced to one-third of its normal level.

While Holm, who was also employed as a simulator instructor, waited for an explanation he received his P45. He said he was horrified to discover he had unknowingly been flying for six weeks for Ryanair without being in its employment.

“I had no warning that I was to be taken off the payroll or that they were sending me my P45,” he said. “I immediately checked with Dublin whether I was still on the roster for training the next day and I was. I didn’t understand why they cut me off the payroll.”

He was then told by a Ryanair manager that he “had to go contract” with Brookfield Aviation. He agreed to sign with the contractor on the basis that Ryanair would pay him for work he did after they ended his contract.

Holm continued to fly as a contract pilot for Ryanair until last March, when he took a case for unfair dismissal. His case was settled out of court and he now works for a different airline. He said his experience with Ryanair has “ruined” his pension plans. “They say what happened was a mistake, but I don’t think you can mistakenly send someone their P45,” he said.

Both the British and Irish aviation regulators said employment issues were not their concern as they did not affect a pilot’s licence to fly. “Contractual matters don’t concern us as the pilot’s licence to fly is not changed. This is an airline matter,” said the Irish Aviation Authority.

Ryanair said it could not comment on individual cases, but insisted it complied with employment and equality legislation in the UK. A spokesman said Ryanair used “directly employed and contract pilots to operate its aircraft as is standard practice in the aviation industry. At all times any pilot is subject to the same checks and insurance cover that applies to all pilots operating Ryanair aircraft”.

The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), which backed Holm’s claim against Ryanair, wants the aviation regulator to investigate his case. The association has previously criticised O’Leary’s attitude towards pilots.

Evan Cullen, president of IALPA, said Ryanair had put a lot of pressure on some pilots to change to Brookfield contracts. “It raises serious safety issues if there was no contract between this pilot and the company and he was in charge of a company asset worth €30m and all its passengers,” Cullen said. “No pilot would agree to fly if they knew they weren’t employed, because they’d be fearful that they weren’t insured and they could be liable.”

He said it was “remarkable” that aviation regulators were unconcerned about the case and said he would be raising it with them. “A pilot is contractually obliged to carry out an airline’s procedures, but if that is terminated he could freely operate to different procedures and that has huge safety implications,” Cullen said.

Last week O’Leary found himself on front pages after his comments at a press conference in Germany. He said Ryanair’s new transatlantic service would offer “beds and blowjobs” to those paying €5,000.

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