New wage battle looms at WestJet
Newly unionized flight attendants seeking ‘minimum pay guarantee’
WestJet flight attendants are hoping their new status as unionized employees will bring changes to a system that currently compensates them only for time spent in the air.
For months, flight attendants at the Calgary-based airline have been raising concerns about their pay structure. While it is industry-wide practice to base cabin crew pay on the hours spent flying, most other airlines also provide some compensation for the time flight attendants spend on the ground doing tasks such as preparing airplanes for service or deplaning passengers.
A flight attendant who spoke to The Canadian Press in March, on condition of anonymity, said WestJet does not compensate — meaning that a flight attendant earning a starting wage of just over $25 an hour who only spends half of an eight-hour workday in the air is essentially earning less than minimum wage.
On Tuesday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees became the official bargaining agent for 3,000 WestJet flight attendants nationwide after being granted an interim order by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The union had filed an application with the board on July 10 to represent the flight attendants after a majority signed cards stating they supported joining CUPE.
Janelle Godsman, a Calgarybased WestJet flight attendant and one of the early supporters of the CUPE drive, said she is hopeful that unionization will help the flight attendants negotiate what she calls an “industry-standard contract.”
“We would like to see a minimum pay guarantee per duty day,” Godsman said. “Currently we’re paid on block hours like the majority of airlines, but there’s no minimum pay guarantee. So if we show up and do an hour-long flight, we only get paid for an hour even though we’re working more.”
Two separate Toronto-based law firms, Koskie Minsky LLP and Charney Lawyers, have been investigating the possibility of a class-action suit on behalf of WestJet flight attendants related to unpaid work hours.
On its website, Charney Lawyers said “off-the-clock” work contradicts federal labour laws, and WestJet cabin crew should be entitled to back pay going back at least two years or longer, depending on provincial limitation periods.
However, senior partner Ted Charney told Postmedia on Wednesday that while his firm is still looking for flight attendants interested in taking part in a classaction suit, the recent successful unionization campaign may take some of the air out of that movement.
“In light of the fact there’s a union campaign that is having some success, that may end up being the best route for the flight attendants to go,” Charney said. “We’re still looking for flight attendants who are interested in participating in litigation to get in touch with us, but at the moment it seems their interest is to go towards organizing.”
Flight attendants are the second employee group to unionize this year at the formerly non-union WestJet. Pilots, who are now represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, agreed to a settlement process in May after threatening job action. In a conference call Tuesday to discuss the company’s second-quarter earnings, CEO Ed Sims said the threatened strike cost WestJet “tens of millions of dollars” in lost bookings and cancellations.
Godsman, who is not part of any potential class action, said flight attendants want “stability” for themselves and WestJet, and do not want to see the situation deteriorate to the point of job action.
“We’re very passionate about seeing our company succeed because this is our career — this is what we do,” she said. “It is our goal to work positively with the company and just move forward.”
In a statement, WestJet spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said cabin crew members are a valued part of the WestJet team.
“We believe that our total compensation, along with the work-life balance we provide our cabin crew, is generous and compares very favourably to carriers of a similar size,” Stewart said. “We will be committed to working with the union to achieve a contract that benefits our cabin crew members, shareholders and the company as a whole.”