Ryanair did well to leave Marseille
Numerous are the articles written about Ryanair’s departures from Marseille. It has largely hit the headlines in France and even Europe and created a large debate on Ryanair, mostly focused on its methods, but also its public funding.
For those who already forgot, Ryanair decided to leave Marseille as a result of its dispute with French authorities. French prosecutors have indeed refused to drop a case against the airline for hiring French employees on Irish employment contracts.
Yet back in 2007, a French court had dismissed a complaint by Ryanair against a French decree stating that employees of foreign airlines living in France have to comply with French social security and tax laws.
Ryanair’s defense has always been the same. French law is “ridiculous”, and Ryanair’s contracts are perfectly respectful of the European law, as O’Leary declared several times, ”these are not French jobs but rather Irish jobs on Irish aircraft, which are defined by EU regulations as Irish territory.“
On the contrary, a French aviation expert has confided in me that for him, “there is no doubt that Ryanair was not respecting French labour laws or even European ones.”
However, until now, there hasn’t been a single clue that proves that Ryanair was not in compliance with European law. But last week, Jean-Luc Bennahmias, a European MP, took up the case with the European Commission asking it what its interpretation is. This provided us with yet another take on Ryanair’s vision of the European legal framework.
The Commission’s answers did not clearly rule that Ryanair was in the wrong, however it did cast a doubt as to the legality of Ryanair’s work contracts.
“In the Marseille case, Ryanair employees work and live in Marseille. As a matter of fact, they cannot be considered as Irish workers and their situation is not under the European directive 96/71/CE.”
This short answer informs us that the European law that Ryanair claimes to follow is not receivable. As a matter of fact, Ryanair probably did well to leave Marseille for it probably would have been fined. Moreover, Ryanair may already know that its Irish contracts all over Europe have, in some cases, no legal basis in regards to European Law.
According to certain aviation analyst, Ryanair left because of other factor; mainly because of its expanding network, and its plane shortage. As a result, it is trying to redistribute ressources on the most profitable routes. And this situation has lead Ryanair to scrap a lot a of routes recently like in Germany, Ireland and UK.
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Check out what others are saying...[...] ruled that, for now, Irish employment could apply to Ryanair employees working from the airport. How long that will last remains to be seen. Rate this: Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
[...] were Irish workers and rightfully declared under Irish law. To do so, the company alluded to an obscure piece of European legislation, claiming the status of its employees fell under European directive 96/71/CE. The directive, [...]