Team size: ~ 10

Major legal advisers: Gide, Orrick, Ogeltree Deakins

Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself?

Before the pandemic, which, starting in April of 2020, required the entirety of Air France’s HR & Labor Law staff to focus on the company’s survival, the HR Legal department at Air France had been developing a previously unheard-of-before dispositive which offered all employees the possibility to settle labour law disputes through conventional mediation. This created a side-track to French traditional means of dispute resolution which are strikes or trial. This incentive allowed for a free, fast and speedy recovery to any arising dispute by allowing a third, mediating, party into the equation. This legal innovation permitted a noticeable decrease in judicial procedures and tremendous cost reductions, whether external (legal fees) or internal (better repartition of billable hours).

Have any recent political, economic or regulatory changes impacted your work? How are you dealing with this?

The pandemic had a tremendous impact on our industry and has been an unprecedented challenge for the HR legal teams. Regarding Air France’s activity, borders closing, and travel restrictions forced the company to reduce its activity, touching down to 90% in 2020, which cost our company billions of euros worth of losses. The situation forced Air France to cut down more than 15% of its staff, in all departments (pilots, cabin crew, ground staff). Another challenge was the switch instantly to the WFH (work from home) policy enforced by the SAH (stay at home) orders. Part-time activity dispositions had to be enforced to adapt working conditions to the decrease in activity caused by the pandemic. This system also enabled Air France, after the crisis, to resume activity much more quickly than its competitors.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

Air France is totally committed to reduce CO2 emissions related to air transport, with a reduction target in net aviation CO2 emissions of 50% by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. To achieve this ambitious Climate Action Plan, Air France mitigates impacts on climate change with a strategy of pursuing fleet modernisation and contributing to aeronautical research and of involving staff and external stakeholders on ambitious action plans to reduce gas emissions from flight operations and ground activities. On the Legal HR Department’s side, this also means integrating the policies and prerogatives offered by the work councils created by the Climate Change law of 2021 with regards to environmental and sustainable development matters into the company’s daily life.