Ryanair has been charged by French prosecutors for illegal working practices. The airline is accused of declaring that 120 employees living in France as working in Ireland. The complaint was brought by the unions who say that under French labour laws employees living in France should be declared in France. Ryanair’s French hub is in Marseille and although Michael O’Leary has not commented on this particular case, earlier in the year after a threat of civil action for the same charges, he threatened to pull out of Marseille if he was dragged before the courts.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has hit out at European governments for failing to prevent the repeated air traffic control strikes that have caused travel misery for millions over the summer. In a statement, the airline stated that as an essential services, Europe’s Air Traffic Control should not be allowed to strike: “Europe’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) is an essential service and these protected civil service workers should not be allowed to strike or hold passengers to ransom in this way. Europe’s airlines and passengers have suffered at the hands of ATC providers all summer long and now, ahead of yet another Spanish ATC strike, Ryanair is calling on the EU to take action to prevent further strike action.
“Action must be taken at EU level to ensure that the ‘right to strike’ is removed from essential services such as ATC and competition must be introduced across Europe’s ATC providers to ensure that a strike in one country is not be allowed to disrupt million of passengers’ travel plans.”