The Taoyuan Union of Pilots yesterday offered to hold eight-hour negotiations beginning at 1am today, as it announced plans for a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei in support of striking China Airlines pilots, whose strike enters its sixth day today.
No timeframe was given for the sit-in.
While the ministry and the airline agreed to meet with union representatives, China Airlines said that the union’s proposed start time for the talks was unfair, as it appeared to be an effort to avoid a media presence, even though the negotiations are to be broadcast live over the Internet.
The carrier said that it had agreed to deploy three pilots for flights that exceed eight hours and four pilots for flights that exceed 12 hours, thereby meeting the union’s main terms for resolving the problem of pilot fatigue.
It said that it also agreed to assign three pilots for red-eye flights — those departing between 2am and 5am — if the duration of the flight is more than seven hours.
However, it rejected a new demand by the union that multi-leg flights of more than seven hours should also be assigned three pilots, it added.
The union has defined multi-leg flights as those in which the aircraft makes two or more landings, including round-trip flights between two destinations, while China Airlines said that it defines multi-leg flights as those involving landings at a minimum of three different destinations.
Accepting the union’s demand on multi-leg flights would dramatically raise personnel costs, it said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), who took part in three-way negotiations held on Monday night, said that he was extremely disappointed that the union refused to discuss the airline’s proposal for red-eye flights.
The union also did not consider the ministry’s compromise that a third pilot be assigned on a case-by-case basis for flights with a duration of between six and eight hours, he said.
A lack of consensus on this issue led to the strike continuing yesterday for a fifth day.
Union board director Chen Pei-pei (陳蓓蓓) rejected accusations that the union has changed its demands, saying that it has made many concessions, but needs to make additional proposals because of China Airlines’ refusal to amend its working conditions.
The union’s first concession was agreeing to use flight time rather than flight duty period as the basis for dispatching additional pilots, said Chen, one of the first female pilots trained by China Airlines.
The flight duty period refers to the period that commences when a crew member is required to report for duty for a flight or a series of flights and ends when the airplane comes to a full stop at the end of the final flight.
Its second concession was agreeing that the company should dispatch four pilots when a flight’s scheduled duration exceeds 12 hours, instead of 11 hours, she said.
The union had good reasons for demanding a third pilot on multi-leg flights lasting more than seven hours, Chen said.
For example, round-trip service between Taipei and Bangkok totals about seven hours, but pilots actually work eight hours if the waiting time on the ground is included, she said.
Pilots are likely to feel tired in such cases, she added.
While the airline defines red-eye flights as those in which pilots report for duty between 12am and 5am, it can always manage to meet airline regulatory standards by playing semantics, Chen said.
The airline should come up with a better proposal for relieving the fatigue that pilots might experience on multi-leg flights if it thinks that the union’s demand is unfeasible, she said, adding that the union should not keep making concessions while China Airlines does nothing.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration’s Aircraft Flight Operation Regulations (航空器飛航作業管理規則) are the framework that airlines have to follow, but the rules governing the dispatch of pilots must be set through negotiations between workers and management, she said.
The regulations stipulate that the flight time of an airplane begins from the moment it moves away from the gate to take off until the moment it comes to a full stop after landing.
A duty period is defined as beginning when a flight or cabin crew member is required by their airline to report for or to commence a duty and ends when that person is free from all duties.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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