The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union has lodged a complaint that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to Singapore today will require his China Airlines (CAL) airplane’s crew to work overtime.
The union, which was established in September, yesterday said that the CAL crew would have to work 20 hours straight, a violation of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Citing articles 42 and 37, airlines are allowed to extend the work day of flight crews to 20 hours as long as they are allowed a rotating one-hour rest in-flight, it said.
The articles stipulate that employers can extend flight crew work hours to a full 24 hours after they have had a three-hour rest in a hotel after landing, the union said.
It is ludicrous that such violations are legal under the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法), because these regulations violate Article 32 of the Labor Standards Act, which state that employers cannot extend employees’ work hours beyond 12 hours per day, the union said.
Ma’s trip to Singapore to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) highlights the absurdity of the regulations and the exploitation of flight crews, the union said.
Overtime is inevitable for transoceanic flights, the union said, adding that it has repeatedly urged the Ministry of Labor to make the Labor Standards Act the guiding regulation for short and regional flights.
While the union said that it hoped its complaint would highlight how the ministry and the Civil Aeronautics Administration disregard the health of flight crews, CAL dismissed its allegations as groundless rumors.
Ma is scheduled to leave for Singapore at 6am and fly home tonight after a dinner with Xi.
Additional reporting by CNA
This story has been updated since it was first published.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS