Arbitrator settles flight attendant wages at Air Canada, ending labor dispute
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An arbitrator reviewing flight attendant wages at Air Canada has finalized rates at the airline, ending a labor dispute that disrupted travel for thousands last summer.
The arbitrator maintained the rates agreed in a temporary deal for flight attendants on Air Canada’s main line, but increased the increase in the first year for those at the Rouge.
The bargaining committee for the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said this was not the outcome the union had fought to achieve.
More than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on strike last August, affecting the travel plans of thousands of customers.
Less than 12 hours after the strike began, Ottawa intervened in the strike and used Section 107 of the Canada Labor Code to force the airline and the union into binding arbitration. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered the flight attendants to return to work a day later.
That order was ignored by union officials, leading the board to say the strike was illegal, while the union said it would proceed.
The company and union resumed negotiations a few days later, before reaching a tentative agreement.
A large portion of the terms within the tentative deal – such as setting rules for pension and retirement bridging, health benefits, prone rest and leave – were already considered final, as agreed to by both Air Canada and the union.
However, Air Canada flight attendants voted by more than 99 per cent to reject the wage proposal in the agreement in September.
The union and the airline agreed at the time that if members rejected the deal, the salary portion would first be referred to arbitration and then, if no agreement was reached, to arbitration.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees said Saturday that Air Canada flight attendants voted against the airline’s latest pay proposal. 99.1 percent of its members rejected the proposal.
What is included in the contract
The contract includes a 12 per cent pay increase for most junior Air Canada flight attendants this year and an eight per cent raise for more senior members in the first year of the contract.
Rouge flight attendants will get a 13 percent raise in the first year of the deal, an increase of one percentage point from the initial temporary agreement.
The contract includes raises for both Air Canada and Rouge flight attendants of three per cent in the second year, 2.5 per cent in the third year and 2.75 per cent in the fourth year.
The agreement, which runs until March 2029, also addresses the contentious issue of unpaid work when planes are not in the air.
Flight attendants now receive half their hourly wage rate for 60 minutes of ground time on narrow-body aircraft and 70 minutes on wide-body aircraft. It will increase to 60 percent of the hourly wage rate in April, 65 percent in 2027 and 70 percent in 2028.
The terms related to ground pay were considered final at the time of the deal and were not subject to the arbitration process.
Earlier this month, the federal government published the preliminary findings of its investigation into allegations made by Air Canada flight attendants last year that they were not being paid for ground duties.
Employers in federally regulated industries such as the airline sector must compensate employees at or above the limit set by the federal minimum wage.
Employment Secretary Patty Hajdu’s department said the first phase of its investigation found no evidence that compensation practices in the airline sector fall below the federal minimum wage set in the Labor Code.
But its report highlighted that compensation practices for many part-time and entry-level flight attendants require “close scrutiny.”
