French union CFDT has raised at complaint with the French Government over Eurocopter’s move to open a centralised service centre in Ireland – as we reported on 15th August.  Previously, each Eurocopter entity throughout the world had its own technical assistance structure. EIS (“Eurocopter International Services “) will centralize the management of this – from recruitment to training, and the follow-up qualification and deployment to client’s sites. This new customer support center will work with Eurocopter subsidiaries throughout the world to support their needs.

The union represents the majority of workers at Eurocopter France’s key two sites at La Courneuve near Paris, and Marignane near Marseilles on the country’s south coast.  Their complaint is saying that some work has been moved from France to Ireland, and then from there they continue to provide internal support to various officess including France.  The anomaly is exemplified by CFDT pointing out that Eurocopter’s development of the X4 has attracted funds from the “Crédit Impôt Recherche” (Research Tax Credit) offered by the French Government, and imply that the same funding should be available to avoid the need to serve Eurocopter France from the subsiary-advantageous Ireland.  OVerall they are citing the implication that headcount will need to be reduced in France as Eurocopter seeks to make themselves more profitable by locating some services in cheaper locations.

France is reknown, along with Germany, as having national employment laws heavily stacked in the employee’s favour.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com