BBC新闻100篇 News Item 80

Easyjet has been under investigation here in France since 2006

when an inspection of their operations at Paris Orly airport

showed they'd failed to register

170 employees to the French authorities.

The budget airline is accused of breaking strict labour laws

and is now being pursued by the state prosecutor

for millions of euros in unpaid social security

and health insurance contributions.

The budget airline insists

that its staff were hired under British contracts

and therefore were not subject to French rules.

Orly airport, it claims,

was merely a rest area for its workers

and it was the planes themselves,

and not France that served as their workplaces.

The French authorities point out however

that most of the Easyjet staff lived

and paid their taxes in France

and many were working solely on internal flights between Paris and Nice.