EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) yesterday urged more striking flight attendants to return to work after about 300 expressed a willingness to do so.
EVA and the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union are to start a new round of negotiations today after talks broke down on Saturday.
The airline said it is sticking to the terms it offered in the last meeting.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
As the strike entered its 12th day yesterday, the dispute has shifted from the union’s demands — an increase in per diem, appointment of a labor director and a “no free-rider” clause — which it has dropped, to whether EVA should punish those who joined the industrial action.
The union slammed the airline for punishing 18 flight attendants who apparently walked out before the strike officially started at 4pm on June 20, saying the workers had asked the EVA dispatch center if they would be considered absent if they left and the center answered that it would not.
However, EVA said the 18 flight attendants on flights BR722 and BR871, as well as another seven who were taking training courses, should have fulfilled their duties, as they had checked in before 4pm that day, while the union’s demand was that members who had checked in after 4pm drop their flights, EVA cabin crew division deputy vice president Milly Fung (馮美莉) told a news conference in Taipei.
EVA spokesman David Chen (陳耀銘) said the airline would not take action against attendants who joined the strike legally, but it is sticking to the penalties for the 25 unless they come up with a better reason.
The airline said that among the 300 flight attendants who are willing to return to work, 180 have retrieved their IDs from the union.
EVA cannot agree to reinstate the benefits and working conditions for crew taking part in the strike as the industrial action has negatively affected the company’s profits, it said.
“This is not a retaliation as we have announced this [cancellation of benefits] in May, before the union decided to launch the strike,” he said.
EVA said it has canceled 497 flights, with accumulated NT$2.22 billion in revenue losses as of yesterday.
The stock fell 0.33 percent to close at NT$14.9 in Taipei trading yesterday, compared with the broader market’s 1.53 percent advance.
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