Ryanair considers quitting Marseille
Budget airline threatens to run fewer flights to the city and move all jobs out of France in a dispute over work law
RYANAIR has threatened to close its Marseille base, reduce its routes to the city and move all of its jobs out of France if it is prosecuted for employing French staff on Irish work contracts.
The budget airline has confirmed in a statement that its 120 staff at Marseille pay Irish tax and pension contributions instead of the French equivalents.
However it insists that this complies with EU laws because their workplace - the planes - are registered in Ireland and therefore count as "Irish territory".
"All Ryanair's people operating Irish registered aircraft from Marseille are employed under Irish contracts, are paid in Ireland, and pay full labour taxes, social security and their pension obligations in Ireland," the company said.
Easyjet used a similar argument regarding 170 staff based at Paris Orly airport on British employment contracts. Last month it was fined €1.65m for the practice, which stopped in 2007.
Ryanair is challenging the French decree that forces foreign airlines to follow local labour law and pay local taxes for staff based here.
It is complaining to the European Court of Human Rights that the rules are "contrary to the EU principles of free movement of labour within the EU".
Prosecutors in Aix-en-Provence are examining the Ryanair arrangements. The airline argues that legal action would be "unjustified".
Chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "Should the Aix-en-Provence authorities initiate any court action against Ryanair’s lawful Marseille operations, then jobs, traffic and inward investment will be lost in Marseille.
"The only people who benefit will be Air France, who will again have eliminated competition, while consumers and visitors at Marseille will suffer higher fares."
Ryanair says it has invested more than €300m in its Marseille base and is expecting 1.7 million passengers to use its flights to and from the city this year.
If it goes ahead with the base closure, it says it will axe 10 of the 26 routes currently operating out of Marseille.
Related stories:
Easyjet fined for breaking work law
Easyjet in court over work rights
