Wednesday April 1, 11:59 PM
Airbus Germany spied on staff: spokesman
BERLIN (AFP) - The German unit of Airbus (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) said Wednesday it spied on its employees, comparing their bank account numbers with those of suppliers, in what it called an attempt to fight corruption.
"We launched an internal investigation to see if there was a case similar" to a staff espionage scandal at national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, "and the result is yes," Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath told AFP.
He was confirming a report to appear Thursday in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper stating that banking details of all 20,000 Airbus Germany personnel had been checked in 2007 and compared to those of Airbus suppliers.
Details were spelled out March 23 during a meeting of the company's works councils, where management and labour discuss topical issues, Schaffrath said.
"What is important is that the results of the investigation disclosed that there was no link at all between the banking details of Airbus employees and those of suppliers," he said.
The investigation was launched by the new management team of Airbus, headed by Thomas Enders, that took charge in August 2007 in hopes of ruling out any wrongdoing like that which occurred at Deutsche Bahn, the spokesman said.
On Monday, Hartmut Mehdorn, the head of Deutsche Bahn, the nation's biggest public company, announced he would quit after a rash of scandals that cost him the backing of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Mehdorn's stint at Deutsche Bahn hit the buffers following allegations Friday that the railway had monitored staff emails for signs they had contacted reporters or members of parliament.
Mehdorn denied wrongdoing, saying: "This is not about a data protection scandal but rather a campaign to change company policy and management."
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