UPDATE 2-Court tells easyJet, Ryanair to use French job law
(Adds easyJet comment, paragraph 8)
PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) - France's top administrative court has told easyJet (EZJ.L) and Ryanair Plc (RYA.I) to apply French labour laws for staff operating out of the country, dismissing a bid by the airlines to bypass local working norms.
The two low-cost carriers had appealed against a decree introduced last year that obliged foreign airlines to apply French labour laws for crews of aircraft based here.
Irish-based Ryanair said the decree contravened European laws on the free movement of labour and services.
But France's Conseil d'Etat threw out the complaint and ordered both airlines to pay 2,500 euros in judicial costs, the court said in a statement on Friday.
Ryanair said it would take further legal action after the decision. The airline said it had requested that the European Commission launch an official infringement procedure against France over what it said was an unlawful decree.
"Ryanair has challenged this unlawful and anticompetitive labour decree as it is contrary to European laws on free movement of labour and services, freedom of establishment and the liberalised air transport market," Ryanair's head of regulatory affairs and company secretary, Jim Callaghan, said.
"Ryanair will challenge the court's refusal to request a preliminary ruling from the European courts and to provide undistorted competition in France. French consumers have suffered long enough under an Air France monopoly which is denying them the benefits of competition and low fares."
A spokesman for easyJet, which has 170 employees in France and six aircraft based there, said it would comply with French law and enter into a process now to ensure it was doing so. The liberalisation of the European services industry is a sensitive issue in France, where opposition to sweeping liberalisation was a major factor in French voters' rejection of the European Union constitution in 2005.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in Dublin and Jason Neely in London)
((Reporting by Pascal Lietout, editing by Quentin Bryar, Paul Bolding; Paris Newsroom; +33 14949 5339; kerstin.gehmlich@reuters.com; kerstin.gehmlich.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: FRANCE AIRLINES/COURT
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