Caring for the crew
Fatigue is as big an issue for flight attendants as it is for pilots. They’re the proxy for airline captains in the cabin and talks have been going on to finalise agreements for ULR flying between the airline and crew unions E tu¯ and the smaller breakaway Flight Attendants’ Association of NZ. E tu¯ says negotiations during the past year have been difficult and resulted in the month-long strike by onboard crew leaders to focus attention on the pay and conditions of the rehired crew.
Central to the negotiations was base pay, which hadn’t increased since 2018, and the pay and conditions for crew expected to fly ultra-long flights to New York and Chicago.
After protracted negotiations, the union signed a settlement on May 27, which needed to be ratified by members.
The deal includes better base pay for crew than was originally offered, and an increase in the extended duty and ULR payments for the longer and ultra-long duties, as well as increases to allowances, says E tu¯ head of aviation, Savage.
The union’s central goal was to get the base rate above the minimum wage and at least equal to the Living Wage of $49,190 a year, he says.
“Our biggest concern with New York duties is fatigue mitigation, as the crew could find themselves working for up to 22 hours if flights are delayed. We still don’t have certainty about onboard rest facilities, the amount of pre-duty and post-duty rest, and the amount of rest crew will get in New York before having to fly home.”
At this stage there will only be two nights and one day rest for crew.
“We prefer crew to have a guarantee of at least two full days of rest and will be pursuing this via the airline’s Fatigue Risk Management Forum.”
Last month, Flight Attendants’ Association president Craig Featherby said while conditions relating to fatigue were still being discussed, about 215 of its 268 members had agreed to fly ULR routes over 16 hours — Chicago and New York. “The general view of the membership is this is quite exciting. Of course, everything comes back to safety and risk assessments that have to be completed first.”
The association was formed in 2020 following a wave of redundancies which shrank the airline by about a third.
“We need the business as much as what they need us. Our members want to fly to New York and they want fair, reasonable conditions and at the forefront of everything is safety.”
Featherby says data from the Massey Sleep/Wake Centre is being compared to study results from other airlines which did longrange flights, including South African Airways.
While other airlines were flying further, for Air New Zealand New York is a huge undertaking, Featherby says. “For the cabin crew it’s just exciting to think that finally, we can link up with the rest of the world. We’re a little country now connecting to the Big Apple — that’s pretty amazing.”