‘An archaic practice’: Flight attendants protest unpaid work
Global News
Currently, until a plane’s doors are closed and pushed back from the gate that flight attendants begin to get paid, until the flight touches down.
Flight attendants are calling to get paid for time that they’re on a plane but not in the air.
Currently, it’s beginning when a plane’s doors are closed and the aircraft pushed back from the gate that flight attendants begin to get paid, until the flight touches down. Attendants figure they work 35 unpaid hours per month.
“It is an archaic practice,” Alia Hussain, president of CUPE Local 4070, said at an informational picket at the Calgary International Airport on Tuesday. Similar protests were taking place at airports across the country
“Anytime that a flight attendant is at work in uniform on duty, should he or she, they should be paid,” she said.
“This isn’t just a one airline problem, this is an industry problem. And we want it addressed.”
Brandy Whitby, the Calgary vice-president for Westjet flight attendants, is now in the industry part-time after 17 years full-time.
She said some of the unpaid work includes checking manuals, bulletins and emails, and checking personal flight documents well before they set foot in a terminal, a process that can take hours.
Delays on the tarmac or people requiring extra assistance deplaning all go unpaid. Winter storms also leave flight attendants without pay.
