The Spanish airline Volotea was fined in France for “hidden work”. After several complaints to the labor inspectorate, inspections have proved that the company was paying salaries in Spain to pilots who were working in Bordeaux.
As reported by Franceinfo, the company was accused of paying the salaries of 18 pilots in Spain even when they were working at Bordeaux airport. The company would have saved between 2013 and 2017 around 630,000 euros, as a product of avoiding paying higher French social charges and contributions.
Although European law provides for a secondment system (continuing to pay a worker in one country while performing tasks in another), this must be provisional. For this reason, the court granted the prosecutor’s request and fined the company 200,000 euros -suspending the payment of half of the fine- for “hidden work”.
