The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is to propose changes to quarantine measures for long-haul flight cabin crew members today, after the current measures were found to be difficult to enforce.
Long-haul flight crew members must quarantine for five days in a designated hotel or at home, if they live in a one-person household, and manage their health for another five days.
Airlines are required to dispatch personnel to inspect whether crew members follow home quarantine rules, including watching short-haul flight cabin crew members take rapid tests for COVID-19 through videoconferencing.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The most recent rule update took effect on Monday last week. Previously, long-haul flight crew members had to quarantine for five days at designated hotels and observe self-health management rules for another nine days.
Since the new rules took effect, some crew members have said that airlines do not have the same legal authority as police or government officials, questioning whether they can legally check on their employees who quarantine at home.
As airlines were concerned that some employees might contravene the rules, they have denied crew members’ requests to quarantine at home and asked them to quarantine at hotels.
Four pilots from EVA Airways and China Airlines have filed a lawsuit against their employers at the Taoyuan District Court, asking to be allowed to quarantine at home. The court ruled in their favor.
The CAA on Tuesday and Friday last week met with representatives from the two airlines and Pilots Union Taoyuan to discuss changes to quarantine rules, the agency said.
They reached an agreement that airlines or local civil affairs officials should inspect crew members at least once during their home quarantine, the CAA said.
Those living in rural areas should be inspected through videoconferencing, it added.
However, airlines should be allowed to conduct random inspections at their homes or via videoconferencing, the agency said, adding that each week, 20 percent of those who have applied for home quarantines multiple times should be subject to inspections, or airlines should be required to inspect the homes of at least three crew members per day.
Instead of watching cabin crew take rapid tests through videoconferencing, they should be allowed to take pictures of themselves taking the tests and send them to airlines.
The CAA said it respects the court’s ruling, adding that it would continue working with airlines to enforce home quarantine rules in accordance with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s instructions.
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