Regulators should punish airlines that contravene labor standards by penalties up to the loss of flying rights, flight attendant unions said in a protest at the Civil Aeronautics Bureau in Taipei yesterday.
More than 100 union members participated in the event organized by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union and the EVA Air Union, following the death of an EVA Airways flight attendant last month who was made to continue working despite falling gravely ill.
Union officials urged the bureau to amend regulations governing flight operations and flying rights, saying that airlines would not respect workers’ health and safety unless they face more stringent penalties for violating labor standards.
Photo: CNA
Airlines have repeatedly stymied efforts to update the rules governing flight operations to reflect changes made more than 10 years ago to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), resulting in meager protections for workers, they said.
Citing an example, union officials said most Taiwanese employers are required to give employees 11 hours of rest between shifts, compared with nine hours for large swathes of flight attendants.
Regulations governing flying rights should also be revised to punish airlines that repeatedly fail to abide by labor laws, as paltry fines have proven ineffective in curbing employer labor violations, they said.
EVA Airways has been cited for multiple labor standard violations, for which it paid just NT$2 million (US$64,205), union officials said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration has repeatedly turned a blind eye to labor rights abuses by companies, despite being fully authorized and empowered to regulate these companies, they said.
The lack of provisions to penalize airlines that ignore labor standards has fostered a vicious cycle in which companies cut employee medical leave to retain their competitive edge, union officials said.
In response, bureau representatives said that the government held eight public hearings on the matter, but decided to table the issue after union and business representatives failed to come to an understanding.
Currently, labor standards governing the working conditions of flight attendants are determined by negotiated agreements between business and labor representatives in each company, they said.
The bureau is considering alternatives to improve conditions in the industry, they added.
On Oct. 8, a flight attendant, surnamed Sun (孫), died of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy.
The death triggered a backlash from the nation’s labor groups, including the EVA Air Union, leading to threats of a boycott against the corporation’s marathon, which was eventually held on Oct. 26.
The airline’s handling of Sun’s death sparked public furor following revelations that the company had asked Sun to turn in a leave request.
Sun’s family slammed the airline’s handling of her death, particularly over a human resources manager’s demand for her to turn in paperwork for being absent at work, according to communications later leaked to the press.
Working conditions at the airline have been at the center of several high-profile labor disputes over the years, including a flight attendants’ strike in 2019 and a pilots’ strike last year.
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