Parliamentary Petition e-4470 (Employment and labour)

The Vancouver & District Labour Council support parliamentary petition e-4470, regarding fair compensation for flight attendants.

The petition reads as follows:

Whereas:

• Flight attendants in Canada perform duties that are essential to the safety and comfort of air passengers; and whereas flight attendants are not paid for many of these duties including but not limited to boarding, pre-flight safety checks, ground delays, or are paid only half their hourly rate for Transport Canada-mandated training;
• and whereas, according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Union of Public Employees of over 9,000 flight attendants, flight attendants in Canada work unpaid for 35 hours per month, on average; and
• and whereas the Government of Canada, through the Canada Labour Code, currently provides flexibility to employers in Canada to define work and what is to be paid, including training, time at the worksite waiting to be assigned work, and time spent on break but remaining at the employer’s disposal.

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to fix the relevant legislation and regulations so that any employee who is performing training required by their employer, or the federal government or regulator; who is required to be at the worksite waiting to be assigned work; or who is at the worksite remaining at their employer’s disposal, is being paid at the employee’s contractual rate of pay, and no less than federal minimum wage, so that an employee who is at work, in uniform, performing work duties is being paid for their time from the moment work duties begin.