AF Air FranceKLM

PARIS—Air France has fired four employees suspected of accosting two executives in October, an incident that caused uproar in the country and cast a harsh light on the airline's contentious labor negotiations.

In an internal investigation, the airline identified 18 staffers who allegedly took part in the attack that left human resources chief Xavier Broseta and chief of long-haul flights Pierre Plissonnier with their shirts and jackets torn, a company spokesman said Friday.

The French arm of the Franco-Dutch group Air France-KLM fired four ground workers for allegedly taking part in the aggression on Oct. 5. The airline is processing the dismissal of a fifth employee, who is an employee representative and benefits from special protection, the spokesman said.

The company also investigated a sixth employee who wasn't sanctioned.

The airline hasn't disclosed the identity of the workers. Union representatives who organized the protest have denied their members were behind the violence, blaming unidentified rabble-rousers.

Miguel Fortea, a representative of the CGT union, said Friday the video footage doesn't show clearly that the four workers took part in the violence. "Management is using this to divert attention from the thousands of job cuts it plans," Mr. Fortea said on French TV BFM.

The French company's dispute with its workers has attracted global attention. Workers stormed the company's headquarters as the airline was disclosing planned job cuts, accosting Messrs. Broseta and Plissonnier. TV cameras showed a bare-chested Mr. Broseta clambering over a chain-link fence with his shirt cuffs in tatters, images that were beamed around the world and carried broadly in international newspapers.

Air France is in the middle of bruising cost-cutting negotiations with workers, as the former state-owned carrier struggles to slim its operations and compete with nimbler rivals such as Ryanair Holdings PLC and easyJet PLC in Europe. On the more expensive long-haul market, the airline is being hit hard by Persian Gulf carriers such as Emirates Airline that have grabbed market share.

The company has suspended 11 other ground staffers for 15 days without pay for allegedly helping protesters pass through gates to the company headquarters. Two pilots are also being probed for allegedly opening the headquarters doors, said the Air France spokesman.

All the sanctioned workers have 10 days to appeal the company's decision.

Separately, five Air France employees are due to stand trial in the court of Bobigny, a town north of Paris, in December, where they will face charges of aggravated violence, according to prosecutors. The company declined to say whether the five men are the same employees it has fired.

Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2015 07:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

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