Flight safety and national security might face serious risks if the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and companies fail to regulate the number of Chinese and other foreign staff, two unions said at a news conference in Taipei on Monday.
Association of Taoyuan Union of Pilots president Lee Hsin-yen (李信燕) said that in a ploy to weaken the union, the number of foreign staff at domestic airline companies has doubled since 2010, with EVA Air the worst offender.
The Collective Agreement Act (團體協約法) stipulates that half of a company’s employees have to be a part of a union for it to represent employees, Lee said.
Photo courtesy of the Association of Taoyuan Union of Pilots
However, domestic airlines pass over pilots with a Commercial Pilot License in favor of those the airline trains itself, or foreign or retired military pilots, most of whom have not gone through background or certification checks, he said.
The union has found that many foreign pilots who were recruited to fly Boeing 787s did not have experience flying the planes, he said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration has failed to check whether airlines are hiring foreign pilots in accordance with the Employment Service Act (就業服務法), he said.
EVA Air said that it has 320 foreign pilots, or 20.7 percent of its pilot pool.
It runs background checks and all of its pilots must have clear incident records, EVA said, adding that its foreign pilots are required to have an Airline Transport Pilot License.
All of its foreign pilots must train and pass exams before they can fly Boeing 787s, it said, citing Article 46 of the act.
Meanwhile, China Steel Express Union president Wang Ching-hung (王慶宏) said China Steel Express Corp’s hiring practices have national security implications.
The firm has hired 51 Chinese — compared with 45 Taiwanese — to crew five Panamanian-flagged ships since 2015, Wang said.
This raises the possibility of crews mutinying in the event of a cross-strait conflict, preventing the ships from being drafted by Taiwan’s navy, which would cut supplies of essential materials, he said.
Maritime and Port Bureau official Lee Chen-yu (李宸宇) said that China Steel Express has 10 vessels registered under “flags of convenience,” on which there are 63 Chinese crew members and 122 Taiwanese.
In times of war, the bureau’s maritime transport mobilization plan would allow 225 Taiwanese transport vessels to be drafted to carry civilian and wartime goods, Lee said.
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