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.

From: Emma Jane Kirby, BBC News, Paris