Ryanair hit with $10m fine over French labor violations

Ryanair is being forced to pay roughly 8 million euros ($10.8 million) in damages and fines after breaking labor laws in France.

A group of the budget airline's French pilots say that the SNPL pilots union brought the case forward after Ryanair failed to pay French social security and pension contributions of its Marseille hub between 2006 and 2010.

A court in Aix-en-Provence found for the pilots, and ordered damages of $10.8m to be paid. In addition, the judge fined Ryanair 200,000 euros ($270,440).

The Irish airline argued that as its pilots worked in Irish-registered planes, these charges should be paid to Irish coffers rather than France. However, the court disagreed.

Ryanair plans to appeal the ruling. Ryanair's Robin Kiely said:

"Ryanair will study today's ruling in detail, and will be lodging an early appeal. Since all of our people operating to/from Marseille between 2007 and 2010 have already paid their social taxes and pension contributions in Ireland, in full compliance with Irish and EU employment regulations, we do not believe that either Ryanair or our people can be forced to double pay these contributions a second time in France.

In the meantime, Ryanair and its people will continue to comply fully with Irish and EU employment law, income taxes and social tax obligations."

Via: Skift

Image credit: Ryanair

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com