A Britain-based 'low-cost' or bargain airline has been fined in France for keeping airport employees in the country. A French court in Creteil, a suburb of Paris, has ordered that the airline, EasyJet, pay 1.55 million euro (about 2.07 million in dollars) in damages and fines. 150,000 euro of that money was in fines, the rest in payment to a French state employment agency and several other plaintiffs. EasyJet was convicted of keeping 150-odd employees in the French Orly airport from 2003-2006 on British contracts. British contracts are generally somewhat less expensive for companies than French contracts. Companies are now required to apply French labor contracts to employees in France, but EasyJet maintains that it had complied with French law of the time.
See "EasyJet fined euro1.5 million in French labor dispute", Business Week, April 8, 2010