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RYANAIR HAS BEEN ordered to pay €8.3 million in damages and fines for breaching French labour law.
Today a French appeals court ruled that the Irish budget airline must pay €8.1 million in damages, along with €200,000 in fines.
The court found the company guilty of paying workers under Irish contracts to save money on payroll and other taxes.
Ryanair has said that it will be appealing the decision because it is “contrary to EU law on mobile transport workers and follows similar cases against other airlines”.
In a statement released shortly after the ruling, the airline said it will “appeal any attempt by the French authorities to seek double payment of social insurance payments which have already been fully paid in Ireland in respect of work which takes place entirely on Irish aircraft and therefore on Irish territory”.
The company’s Head of Communications Robin Kiely said the airline would appeal today’s ruling “on the basis that European employment law clearly allows mobile workers on Irish registered aircraft to pay their taxes and social taxes in Ireland”.
We will also be seeking a referral to the European Court of Justice to prevent these attempts by the French authorities to claim social taxes that have already been paid in full to Ireland.
In October 2013, Ryanair was ordered to pay nearly €9 million euros in damages and interest.
The airline was charged with avoiding paying payroll and other taxes, as well as preventing workplace councils from functioning and hampering employees’ access to unions.
Ryanair appealed the initial ruling in June 2014.
Social charges in France are at around 40-45%, compared to 10.75% in Ireland.
The airline will have to pay damages to trade unions, France’s social security system and pilots, among others.
The case is focused on a facility in Marignane, near Marseille in the south of France. The company based four planes and 127 employees at the site without applying French labour law or filling out tax declarations in the country.
Ryanair argued that it did not have a permanent base in the area and that it was entitled to keep its workforce on Irish contracts, but prosecutors said its claim was not credible because the workers were living locally, and the airline had offices there.
Additional reporting: AFP
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Didn’t we kick up a fuss with the Irish ferries thing?
I’m with the French on this. The staff live in France and use French government services. They should pay French social insurance charges.
Ryanair is great but there are limits.
Not satisfied with frightening off its most productive citizens, Hollande now has airlines in his sights.
This French government is the epitome of economic misgovernance.
Clearly, they will not be satisfied until France is a replica of 1970′s Albania.
Hire them, cut them in half, squeeze them dry and throw them away. Quote unquote Michael O’Leary.
Ah the daily mail.
I love it when bullies get their comeuppance.
A bit premature, it will be awhile before the French get their comeuppance.
Ben, :-)
Hmmm which one is the bully. Ryanair air or the French. Whilst I admire the French for their ability to get out and protest and the way they look after their own.
They do have a habit of ignoring international law.
Down with fat cat greedy b******* screwing everyone so they can make more and more and more money. Pay up ya loudmouth bully
He makes more in a week than you do in a year.
Coco, nice, old fashioned begrudgery. The French are notorious for trying to screw any non-French company whilst happily turning a blind eye to their own companies’ skirting the rules. Ryanair are an easy target as they, the French et al, seem to think that everyone hates Ryanair. In that they are wide of the mark.
Same in Italy. They’ve been convicted there too for the same thing.
Begrudgery ? Big fat profit making company begrudging pay workers what they are due
They pay taxes in Ireland in accordance with European labour laws, something which the French seem to have difficulty accepting lately.
The majority of airlines that have ground staff based in another country working directly for the airline, Normally pay taxes in that country take the likes of the US carriers/middle east.
They will have a certain amount of operational staff based here in Ireland who would pay their taxes here, Could you imagine the likes of Revenue been told just say by Aldi/Tesco that their Irish employees will pay their taxes in the UK& Germany.
The article does not say what the nationalities of the workers are and if they are ground crew or air crew.
This is another case of Ryanair throwing their weight around and acting under complete ignorance in an attempt to maximise profits, imagine if a foreign airline came into Ireland and conducted themselves as Ryanair has done so in France with employees living in Ireland and making no contributions at all to the state, of course it’s wrong. Ryanair should pay the fine and learn a lesson, all of the Ryanair staff based in France of course should be working under a French contract (of course this is a more expensive option for Ryanair). Ignorance comes at a price… In this case €8.3 million… I admire Mick o Leary but sometimes I do have to laugh… :)
Fair play to the French for demanding that Ryanair pay their taxes.
The French have terrific Public Services, well funded. As someone who needed to use French hospitals I can testify to that.
Sod off Ryanair and pay your proper taxes.
Both. Ground for the office and air for flights.
Will the social welfare claims of the employees paid my the Irish state be clawed back?
have your say