Major airlines are claiming the initial findings of a federal probe clear their industry of allegations of unpaid work, but Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says investigators need more data before the issue is settled.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the federal government published the initial findings of a probe it launched six months earlier into allegations made during collective bargaining between Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants.<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on\u00a0strike\u00a0in August 2025.<\/p>\n
Central to that labour dispute were claims from the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees that flight attendants were not being paid for some work, such as ground duties.<\/p>\n
Employers in federally regulated industries like the airline sector must compensate employees at or above a bar set by the federal minimum wage.<\/p>\n
Hajdu\u2019s department said the first phase of its probe did not find evidence that compensation practices in the airline sector fall short of the federal minimum wage set out in the Labour Code.<\/p>\n
But its report did flag that compensation practices for many part-time and entry-level flight attendants warranted \u201ccloser examination.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Hajdu said federal investigators heard stories from union members about times when they weren\u2019t fully compensated for delayed flights. She said those anecdotes couldn\u2019t be fully verified by pay records.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not to say it isn\u2019t true. That\u2019s just to say that the records aren\u2019t matching,\u201d Hajdu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t get sufficient information to really fully determine, one way or another, the validity of the argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hajdu said investigators found one example in a small northern airline \u201cwhere it looked like people were being underpaid.\u201d She said the unnamed employer is working with her department on fixing that gap.<\/p>\n
In a media statement, CUPE said that it was disappointed the probe \u201cappears to have concluded that the abuse of unpaid work by multi-billion dollar airlines is not a problem worth fixing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said compensation for flight attendants across most of the airline industry is covered by the \u201ccredit-based model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than an hourly pay rate, the credit model calculates time spent in the air alongside per diems and other benefits that top up a flight attendant\u2019s total compensation.<\/p>\n
Hajdu said while it\u2019s fair to look at whether this system is still working as intended, it\u2019s a model most unions and airlines have agreed to over the course of decades of collective bargaining in Canada.<\/p>\n
The federal government is asking airlines to self-audit their pay records to ensure all flight attendants are paid in accordance with the Labour Code.<\/p>\n
Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE\u2019s airline division, said in a statement Thursday that Ottawa is putting \u201cblind faith\u201d in airlines\u2019 willingness to act responsibly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf airlines could be trusted to do the right thing, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are today, but that\u2019s the only remedy the government has offered so far,\u201d Lesosky said.<\/p>\n
Hajdu said the federal government is taking a \u201ccollaborative\u201d approach with unions and airlines but is prepared to order records or impose penalties if either party doesn\u2019t live up to its side of the bargain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step, if they don\u2019t comply, is that we will order them to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Air Canada vice-president of corporate communications Christophe Hennebelle said in an email that the airline welcomes the outcome of the federal government\u2019s investigation and said it confirmed \u201cthere is no unpaid work at Air Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe findings confirm that the credit\u2011based pay structure is compliant with the (Labour) Code, and that the compensation framework for flight attendants across the airline industry meets the Code\u2019s standards,\u201d Hennebelle said.<\/p>\n
Air Canada will \u201cfully participate\u201d in future phases of the probe, Hennebelle added.<\/p>\n
The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents Air Canada, Air Transat, Jazz Aviation and WestJet, said in a media statement the investigation \u201cdid not identify any systemic action on the part of airlines to avoid compensating flight attendants for the work they perform.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization added that its members are \u201cproud of the vital role flight attendants play\u201d and \u201cremain steadfast in supporting compensation systems that reflect the importance of their work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porter Airlines director of communications and public affairs Brad Cicero said in an email that the Toronto-based carrier takes Ottawa\u2019s probe as affirmation the credit-based compensation system is \u201cappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Air Canada and the flight attendants\u2019 union started an arbitration process last month to settle outstanding wage issues.<\/p>\n
The tentative deal that ended the August\u00a0strike\u00a0would have increased wages for workers and established a pay structure for time worked when aircraft are on the ground.<\/p>\n
Hennebelle said the contract offer \u201cincludes industry\u2011leading provisions that specifically recognize and compensate ground duties\u201d and \u201cdirectly address the misperception of unpaid labour among flight attendants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union members overwhelmingly rejected that tentative deal in a September vote, but the parties reached agreements on other key parts of the contract and agreed not to initiate work stoppages while the wage issue is being ironed out.<\/p>\n
Lesosky warned that unpaid work will be a \u201ccentral issue\u201d as airlines, including WestJet and Porter, sit down to bargain with flight attendants this year. He chastised the federal government for performing a series of studies instead of taking action.<\/p>\n
Hajdu said the federal government will be paying close attention to the outcome of those talks between Air Canada, the union and the Canada Industrial Relations Board. She said she expects clarity on wage requirements will lead to better relationships between labour and employers in the sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the CIRB will help both the union and Air Canada sort through the appropriate regime for compensation through their deliberations and we\u2019ll be looking very closely at what the decision of the board is and how that unfolds,\u201d Hajdu said.<\/p>\n
The head of enforcement and compliance at Hajdu\u2019s department is expected to gather airline and union representatives in Ottawa later this month for a meeting to review the minimum wage requirements in detail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By\u00a0Craig Lord Major airlines are claiming the initial findings of a federal probe clear their industry of allegations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-480932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}