加载中…Pilot protest: 《Global Times》 Interview Lawyer Weimin Diao
(2016-11-16 06:13:42) Pilot protest:
《Global Times》 Interview Lawyer Weimin Diao
Source: 《Global Times》Published: 4-23
More than 100 Chinese pilots
working for Air China Ltd have signed a public letter to the
company, asking for guaranteed holidays, equal pay and the right to
change jobs, media reports said Friday.
The pilots said they are in a vulnerable position in negotiations and have not received proper feedback or respect from the company, according to the open letter, which was posted on aviation industry news portal airweek.net's Weibo account Friday.
Many of the pilots who signed the letter are captains of Air China's two most important fleets, China Business Journal reported Friday, noting Air China has started dealing with the pilots' requests.
Experts said the complaints mentioned in the open letter have existed in the whole domestic airline sector for a long time, reflecting problems in companies' management and payment systems, as well as gaps in the country's aviation law.
Overworked pilots
In the open letter, the pilots asked Air China to stop the "destructive use" of pilots and to ensure that they get the necessary amount of holidays.
The pilots demanded they should work no more than 850 hours of flight time per year and get 21 days of holiday per year.
The letter did not reveal the actual annual flight hours for the pilots, but an aviation industry analyst who wished to remain anonymous told the Global Times Tuesday that overtime work is common in Chinese airlines due to a shortage of pilots.
In 2013, 15 Air China pilots filed a lawsuit against the company after it rejected their resignation requests, media reports said in August 2013.
Wang Xiaoyu, one of the pilots who wanted to quit, said that almost every Air China pilot worked nearly 100 hours per month, even though the average flight time for non-Chinese airlines is only 60 hours per month, Beijing-based newspaper Legal Weekly reported in August 2013.
According to rules set by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), each pilot's monthly flight time should not exceed 100 hours. Their rest time should also be twice as long as each flight and no less than eight hours.
The open letter criticized Air China for reducing pilots' rest time and holiday, leading to detrimental effects on pilots' health.
Air China could not be reached for comment by press time. But Beijing Times newspaper on Saturday quoted an anonymous insider from Air China as saying that the company gives pilots eight hours rest time after each flight and rejecting the claim of "destructive use."
Payment gap
The second request in the open letter was for equal payment for Chinese and non-Chinese pilots. The pilots claimed that non-Chinese pilots hired by Air China received much higher salaries and more holidays.
The annual salary of a non-Chinese pilot working for Chinese airlines can be as high as $200,000, much higher than a Chinese pilot's annual payment, and even higher than pilots' salaries in the US, news portal 163.com reported Friday.
Hiring pilots from overseas can help ease the shortage of pilots in China and save on expensive training costs, the anonymous analyst told the Global Times.
Meanwhile, a Chinese pilot at Air China can only earn 50,000 yuan ($8,012) per month, and the monthly salary at privately owned Chinese airlines is over 100,000 yuan, the 163.com report said.
Chen Jianguo, a pilot who has worked for several Chinese and non-Chinese airlines for more than 10 years, said in his blog Saturday that non-Chinese pilots are not usually the best, but they enjoy the highest payment and welfare.
Due to the satisfactory payment and working conditions provided by large overseas airlines, these companies' pilots usually will not give up their jobs there and join Chinese firms, even though Chinese airlines offer them such high salaries, Chen said.
Therefore, most of the non-Chinese pilots hired by domestic airlines are not good enough to work for major overseas airlines, but they get higher salaries anyway, leading to the Chinese pilots' complaints, according to Chen.
Tied down
The other main request in the open letter is for the right to change jobs, which has also long been a controversial topic in the Chinese aviation industry.
The main reason why domestic airlines are often unwilling to let their pilots leave is that training them is enormously expensive, costing up to 1.5 million yuan.
In 2005, administrative rules for pilots changing jobs were jointly released by the CAAC and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as well as two bodies under the State Council - the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and the Legislative Affairs Office.
According to the rule, a pilot cannot leave an airline and join another one unless the previous and new employers reach an agreement and the new employer pays a transfer fee, ranging from 700,000 yuan to 2.1 million yuan for each pilot.
In recent years, there have been many disputes and lawsuits between pilots and airlines related to resignations, overtime, or unsatisfactory payment.
But in many cases the airlines rejected the resignation requests, withheld the pilots' licenses, or required high compensation.
Training pilots is expensive and time-consuming, so the airlines are not willing to lose experienced pilots, Diao Weimin, a lawyer specializing in aviation law at Beijing-based Gaotong Law Firm, told the Global Times Tuesday.
However, according to China's law on employment contracts, which was released in 2008, employees have the right to choose jobs freely.
The rule for pilots released in 2005 is contrary to China's labor contract law, which should take precedence, Diao said.
But the solution is not as simple as letting the pilots resign without any compensation, he noted.
Considering the high cost of pilots' training, there should be a law specifically for the aviation industry, which can deal with pilots moving to different jobs and compensation for employers, according to Diao.
Some overseas airlines list the compensation details in the labor contract when they hire pilots, Diao said, noting that this is a good way to make everything clear and avoid possible conflicts.
The pilots said they are in a vulnerable position in negotiations and have not received proper feedback or respect from the company, according to the open letter, which was posted on aviation industry news portal airweek.net's Weibo account Friday.
Many of the pilots who signed the letter are captains of Air China's two most important fleets, China Business Journal reported Friday, noting Air China has started dealing with the pilots' requests.
Experts said the complaints mentioned in the open letter have existed in the whole domestic airline sector for a long time, reflecting problems in companies' management and payment systems, as well as gaps in the country's aviation law.
Overworked pilots
In the open letter, the pilots asked Air China to stop the "destructive use" of pilots and to ensure that they get the necessary amount of holidays.
The pilots demanded they should work no more than 850 hours of flight time per year and get 21 days of holiday per year.
The letter did not reveal the actual annual flight hours for the pilots, but an aviation industry analyst who wished to remain anonymous told the Global Times Tuesday that overtime work is common in Chinese airlines due to a shortage of pilots.
In 2013, 15 Air China pilots filed a lawsuit against the company after it rejected their resignation requests, media reports said in August 2013.
Wang Xiaoyu, one of the pilots who wanted to quit, said that almost every Air China pilot worked nearly 100 hours per month, even though the average flight time for non-Chinese airlines is only 60 hours per month, Beijing-based newspaper Legal Weekly reported in August 2013.
According to rules set by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), each pilot's monthly flight time should not exceed 100 hours. Their rest time should also be twice as long as each flight and no less than eight hours.
The open letter criticized Air China for reducing pilots' rest time and holiday, leading to detrimental effects on pilots' health.
Air China could not be reached for comment by press time. But Beijing Times newspaper on Saturday quoted an anonymous insider from Air China as saying that the company gives pilots eight hours rest time after each flight and rejecting the claim of "destructive use."
Payment gap
The second request in the open letter was for equal payment for Chinese and non-Chinese pilots. The pilots claimed that non-Chinese pilots hired by Air China received much higher salaries and more holidays.
The annual salary of a non-Chinese pilot working for Chinese airlines can be as high as $200,000, much higher than a Chinese pilot's annual payment, and even higher than pilots' salaries in the US, news portal 163.com reported Friday.
Hiring pilots from overseas can help ease the shortage of pilots in China and save on expensive training costs, the anonymous analyst told the Global Times.
Meanwhile, a Chinese pilot at Air China can only earn 50,000 yuan ($8,012) per month, and the monthly salary at privately owned Chinese airlines is over 100,000 yuan, the 163.com report said.
Chen Jianguo, a pilot who has worked for several Chinese and non-Chinese airlines for more than 10 years, said in his blog Saturday that non-Chinese pilots are not usually the best, but they enjoy the highest payment and welfare.
Due to the satisfactory payment and working conditions provided by large overseas airlines, these companies' pilots usually will not give up their jobs there and join Chinese firms, even though Chinese airlines offer them such high salaries, Chen said.
Therefore, most of the non-Chinese pilots hired by domestic airlines are not good enough to work for major overseas airlines, but they get higher salaries anyway, leading to the Chinese pilots' complaints, according to Chen.
Tied down
The other main request in the open letter is for the right to change jobs, which has also long been a controversial topic in the Chinese aviation industry.
The main reason why domestic airlines are often unwilling to let their pilots leave is that training them is enormously expensive, costing up to 1.5 million yuan.
In 2005, administrative rules for pilots changing jobs were jointly released by the CAAC and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as well as two bodies under the State Council - the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and the Legislative Affairs Office.
According to the rule, a pilot cannot leave an airline and join another one unless the previous and new employers reach an agreement and the new employer pays a transfer fee, ranging from 700,000 yuan to 2.1 million yuan for each pilot.
In recent years, there have been many disputes and lawsuits between pilots and airlines related to resignations, overtime, or unsatisfactory payment.
But in many cases the airlines rejected the resignation requests, withheld the pilots' licenses, or required high compensation.
Training pilots is expensive and time-consuming, so the airlines are not willing to lose experienced pilots, Diao Weimin, a lawyer specializing in aviation law at Beijing-based Gaotong Law Firm, told the Global Times Tuesday.
However, according to China's law on employment contracts, which was released in 2008, employees have the right to choose jobs freely.
The rule for pilots released in 2005 is contrary to China's labor contract law, which should take precedence, Diao said.
But the solution is not as simple as letting the pilots resign without any compensation, he noted.
Considering the high cost of pilots' training, there should be a law specifically for the aviation industry, which can deal with pilots moving to different jobs and compensation for employers, according to Diao.
Some overseas airlines list the compensation details in the labor contract when they hire pilots, Diao said, noting that this is a good way to make everything clear and avoid possible conflicts.
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