Pilots working for China Airlines (CAL) — Taiwan’s largest airline company — have threatened to go on strike, after Wednesday’s crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 prompted questions about being the nation’s most overworked pilots.
The Taoyuan Pilots’ Union, whose members are mostly CAL pilots, issued a statement on Thursday that demanded a thorough re-evaluation of working schedules for flight personnel, saying that overworking pilots posed a serious threat to flight safety.
A CAL spokesperson confirmed that negotiations between the company’s managers and union representatives are scheduled for tomorrow.
In addition to a major overhaul of pilots’ working schedules, the union demanded the company to replace all “inept” high-level managers, put a halt to “ineffective cost-control policies” and replenish a shortage in personnel among flight maintenance crews.
Union representatives said they would “not hesitate” in launching a strike if the company failed to meet their demands.
Following speculation that the pilots involved in Wednesday’s crash were exhausted from overwork, the Ministry of Labor issued a report on Friday that said the working schedules of all flight personnel on board were in accordance with labor regulations.
The report said that the working hours of pilots Liao Chien-tsung (廖建宗) and Liu Tse-chung (劉自忠) for Tuesday and Wednesday were within legal parameters.
Taoyuan Serve the People Association member Tu Kuang-yu (杜光宇) said that current regulations on pilots’ working schedules — as stipulated by the Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations — only capped the maximum working hours of a single flight at twelve hours, adding that the law failed to provide adequate time for pilots to rest between flights.
He added that a shortage in personnel among flight maintenance crews meant that many mechanic malfunctions for airplanes were often postponed.
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