Ottawa to probe allegations of unpaid work by flight attendants in Canada's airline sector

CBC

a day ago

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Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says the federal government is launching a probe into allegations of unpaid work in the airline sector as a strike at Air Canada stretches on.
One of the key complaints from the union representing Air Canada flight attendants is that workers are not paid for duties performed when planes are not in the air.
Hajdu said in an interview with The Canadian Press that she finds those claims "deeply disturbing." She says she has asked the federal labour department if there have been any complaints from the sector about unpaid work, but to her knowledge, there have been none.
Hajdu noted that it will take "a number of weeks" for her department to interview employers and unions to get the full scope of collective agreements in the Canadian airline sector.
If the probe determines those allegations are well-founded, Hajdu said she is prepared to introduce legislation that would close any such loopholes.
"I hope that it's going to give Canadians confidence that if we find instances where work is unpaid, that there will be a remedy, legally or otherwise," she said.
Union defied back-to-work order
The minister's announcement comes two days after she asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration on Air Canada and the flight attendants' union, ordering the flight attendants back to work.
The flight attendants' union defied that order and remains on the picket line, leaving Air Canada flights grounded for a third day even after the CIRB ruled Monday that the strike is unlawful.
Hajdu says the CIRB is "seized with this issue" and that the process could be taken to Federal Court.
The union representing the flight attendants and Air Canada were meeting with a mediator on Monday evening, a union spokesperson told CBC News in a brief telephone interview. No further details were provided.
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Labour leaders have cried foul on the federal government's repeated use of Section 107 of the Labour Code to cut off workers' right to strike and force them into arbitration, as the government has done in recent years with workers at ports, railways and elsewhere.
Asked whether the federal government made a mistake attempting to impose binding arbitration hours into the flight attendants' strike on Saturday, Hajdu said it was a "very difficult choice."
But she said the parties were at loggerheads with an economic toll looming as flight cancellations began.
"It was a decision made primarily because both parties said that they were at an impasse and that the dispute was intractable, that they could not find a path forward," she said.
The federal Liberal government is not, however, considering recalling Parliament early to impose back-to-work legislation, Hajdu said.
"This dispute is now in the hands primarily of the two parties, to be honest," she said.
Both parties must adjust expectations: Hajdu
The minister called on the parties to come together to get Canadians on their way and put an end to the "economic shock."
She said both Air Canada and the union will have to adjust their expectations to reach an agreement.
"Everybody has to put a little water in their wine in collective agreements and bargaining," Hajdu said. "Nobody gets exactly what they want."
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed the two parties couldn't reach an agreement at the table.
"It was the judgment of both the union and the company that they were at an impasse. That's not my judgment, it's their judgment," Carney said ahead of a meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford in Ottawa.
Carney said Ottawa recognizes the "critical role that flight attendants play in keeping Canadians and their families safe as they travel," and said it's "important that they're compensated equitably at all times."