Airbus Germany: no evidence of corruption

The German unit of aviation giant Airbus has admitted to having spied on its employees in 2007.

Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath confirmed a report in Thursday's edition of the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper stating that the company had checked the banking details of all its 20,000 personnel in Germany and compared them to those of Airbus suppliers.

No evidence of corruption

The spokesman told AFP news agency that the incident came to light when Airbus management launched an investigation last December to find out whether the airplane manufacturer's German unit had also taken action similar to that at Deutsche Bahn in the past.

Germany's railway operator has been accused of secretly reading staff emails in an attempt to prevent employees from contacting the press and government officials.

Airbus has said the investigation was concluded in mid-2007 as the probe showed there was no link between the employees' banking details and those of suppliers.

Staff members were informed of the goings-on during a meeting of the company's works council on March 23.