FRANKFURT (AP) -- Airbus' German unit has acknowledged that it carried out secret checks on employees' data, by comparing workers' bank account numbers with those of suppliers in 2007.
Airbus spokesman Tore Prang confirmed Wednesday night a report in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.
Prang said Airbus' new management decided to investigate whether the company had taken any such action following news of data checks at other firms.
EADS is the parent company of Airbus.
Germany's national railway, Deutsche Bahn AG, has acknowledged carrying out similar checks on several occasions in an anti-corruption effort. Its chief executive offered his resignation this week after the scandal escalated with allegations that the railway filtered employees' e-mails.
Airbus' employee council was informed immediately after the discovery that the plane maker had checked worker data, Prang said. Employees were informed at a meeting on March 23.
The employee council chief at Airbus' Hamburg plant, Horst Niehus, was quoted as telling the Hamburger Abendblatt that "we are having the matter examined legally."