French airlines group accuses Ryanair, CityJet of unfair competition - report
PARIS (Thomson Financial) - France's union of autonomous airlines (Scara) has sent a letter to the French government accusing various European air carriers of sidestepping French employment laws to unfair competitive advantage, a spokesperson for the transport ministry confirmed following a report in Le Journal du Dimanche.
The newspaper said it had obtained a copy of the letter in which Scara accuses Ireland's Ryanair, Air France subsidiary CityJet, US company NetJets and Switzerland's Global Jet of employing staff in France but applying the employment legislation of their own country.
This allows them to avoid social charges and thereby generate substantial cost-savings, the paper said.
Citing the letter, the paper said Scara, which groups together all French autonomous airlines except Air France, has asked French transport minister, Dominique Bussereau to investigate employment practices at the companies in question and apply the necessary sanctions.
A spokesperson for the transport ministry confirmed receipt of the letter.
'Scara has already alerted the State to the issue of the application of regulations by companies based in France and work inspectors regularly carry out checks,' the spokesperson said.