Airlines bill pilots as well as passengers
The gig economy has spread to airlines, with some pilots paying to fly planes full of fare- paying passengers.
The New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association is worried the “atypical employment” model will spread around the world, including here, as liberalisation of air travel grows.
A paper released recently at the Global Pilots’ Symposium exposed the practice, predominantly used by low- cost carriers in the hypercompetitive European market.
Association president Tim Robinson said the pay- to- fly schemes were very worrying.
“Pilots are paying for all their own training, their type rating — they go into an airline to begin to fly and they’re having to pay for the privilege of getting their first 100 to 200 hours. They’re paying for that while there are fare- paying passengers in the back of the airplane,” he told the Weekend Herald.
The normal airline- pilot relationship was breaking down, Robinson said. “The reason we’re seeing that more and more is because airlines are trying to drive down labour costs where the competition is extreme in Europe.”
An example was when an independent contractor at arm’s length from the operator was not directly employed by that operator.
“They organise their own leave, their holidays, their training, their uniforms, their accommodation, their type rating, and if the airline decides they no longer need their services they can terminate that pilot and they have no job,” Robinson said.
In Europe there are 32 countries all with different laws, making it a fertile ground for atypical employment to get a foothold ( with union jurisdiction ending at each border). In 2014: 16 per cent of pilots were engaged in atypical employment
40 per cent of low- cost carrier pilots were atypically employed
39 per cent of pilots aged between 20 and 30 were atypically employed
56 per cent of pilots made no decision about their working hours ( that is, they had no discretion whether to extend their duty or not in the event of a disruption — they were told when they had to extend).
Robinson said there were concerns the arm’s length relationships could spread to the NZ region
“It’s really just isolated to Europe at the moment but it could spread to the global industry as competition increases and we need to make sure we keep a watching brief on that to see it doesn’t creep into our region.”
Flight attendants are also working under similar arrangements in Europe.
Belgium’s Ghent University surveyed more than 6600 pilots of up to 70,000 who fly in Europe.
While it found there were benefits to greater liberalisation, the study also found that zero- hour employment schemes meant individual crew members were remunerated only for the duration of the flight.
One pilot said: “I have seen the pilot profession terms and conditions in Europe deteriorate constantly over the last 15 years.
“Today young people are tricked into the business by an industry advertising career content that does not exist any more.
“The entire industry is in a negative spiral with decreasing conditions, salaries, standards and competence.”