JUST THE FACTS:
Why did PAL Group’s employees join unions? Why did the pilots join a union? Where are the parties in negotiations? PAL Pilots and the Pandemic
In June 2019, the PAL Airlines pilots joined the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA). Their many reasons for joining are discussed more fully below, but focus primarily on the notions of being entitled to fair compensation in a safe and respectable work environment where managers do not engage in favouritism. The pilots’ positive efforts to join a trade union quickly resulted in other employee groups following suit, and the airline’s flight attendants, ground handlers, cargo agents, customer service agents, and flight dispatchers are now all unionized. Similarly, pilots at the PAL Group of Companies other aviation divisions—Air Borealis and PAL Aerospace—also unionized.
While each work group has their own rationale, an underlying theme among all groups can be traced to how management treats their employees. Without a doubt, there has been a general disregard for employees with an emphasis on favouritism and cutting corners.
One need only peruse the website Glassdoor, where employees anonymously review their employers, to quickly understand that there is a real leadership problem within the company’s senior management ranks. For example, in 2008, one employee reported that “if an employee can stay off the radar from senior management, then an employee might be able to survive the high turnover that this company endures.”
Or, in June 2011, an employee commented:
“The company likes to cut corners, which makes it very stressful on its employees. Most employees are unhappy in their jobs, and you can feel it in the workplace, which makes it uncomfortable. The company does not have a union but is in dire need of one to help bring safety back onto the floor. It is nothing of this company to expect a lot of overtime in which should be a regulated [schedule] due to the nature of the work.”
Even as recently as 2021, a current employee highlighted that there are no promotions for people not from Newfoundland, and a former employee commented on the “bad management,” “safety issues,” and more.
Other websites like Indeed contain similar comments with the most pertinent being:
“If you are looking to feel appreciated, live above the poverty line, be rewarded for good performance and to work in a healthy workplace, PAL is not the place for you. The fear motivation tactic is common, and if you are not management, no one cares about who you are or what you have to say. HR has no interest in you as an employee unless its disciplinary and will not help you better yourself at all professionally or personally.”
Rather than trying to improve the workplace environment for its employees, PAL Airlines instead focused on improving its public image by submitting applications for workplace awards (along with the almost $1,400 filing fee) to Mediacorp Canada, the largest publisher of employment periodicals in Canada and owner of elucta.ca, a large Canadian job search engine. Mediacorp Canada publishes multiple versions of its “Top Employers” lists that are clearly designed for recruitment purposes and enabling employers to boast of the award:
Yet, despite such accolades and no meaningful changes in working conditions, the pilots joined ALPA in 2019; the flight attendants joined the Canadian Union of Public Employees in 2019; the dispatchers and SOCC coordinators joined the Canadian Air Line Dispatchers Association in 2020; the cargo agents, ramp attendants, commissary agents in St. John’s, Deer Lake, and Wabush joined the Transport and Allied Workers Union (TWU) in 2020; and the customer service agents in St. John’s, Deer Lake, Goose Bay, and Wabush also joined the TWU in 2020–2021.
Despite the clear wakeup call that their employees were unhappy with the status quo, the senior management team continued to mistreat employees. When given the opportunity to work collaboratively with the pilots’ new union, management purposefully ignored ALPA in favour of unilaterally altering existing work rules in violation of the Canada Labour Code. This resulted in ALPA filing an unfair labour practice complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board, challenging management’s alteration to the pilot vacation system, changing the terms under which the sick leave system was managed, forcing pilots to purchase iPads from the company for use at work, and ignoring pilot seniority when transferring between company divisions. Ultimately, these issues were resolved informally, but it did take seeking government intervention for the company’s leaders to recognize their legal obligations to work with their employees’ representatives.
While the workplace environment discussed above was one reason why the pilots joined ALPA, their issues are more specific to the piloting profession. Overall, the PAL Airlines pilots need clear and unambiguous work rules that cannot be changed unilaterally at management’s whim. More specific workplace issues focus on job security, the pay and compensation structure, quality-of-life issues, and short-term disability concerns.
With respect to job security, there are presently no guarantees that jobs will be available for pilots at PAL Airlines. Presently, the company can outsource all flying or transfer that flying to another PAL Group airline and with that all the pilot jobs without the requirement to offer those pilots employment at the other company. Second, when management errs in staffing needs, it is not uncommon for pilots to be forced to use their vacation time or be subjected to a temporary layoff all without sufficient notice (or the ability to plan for such temporary job loss) to the affected employee. Obviously, this creates financial challenges for pilots and their families.
In addition to job insecurity, the pilots’ have not received a pay raise since 2017. Compounding the problem is that the current pay structure relies upon a salary-based system, which is uncommon in the aviation industry. The normal approach uses a credit-based system where pilots receive credits for all hours worked. For example, if a pilot operates a 3-day trip that is worth 15 credit hours, the pilot would be paid 15 credits times their hourly rate of pay. However, if that trip is delayed and ultimately becomes an 18-credit-hour trip, the pilot would receive 18 credits times their hourly rate of pay. Conversely, under the current salary system, the pilot would not receive the additional hours for the delayed flight. While a 3-hour delay isn’t necessarily a problem, the reality is that at PAL Airlines, it is not uncommon to work more than 25 to 50 hours in a year without additional compensation.
Within the piloting profession the term “quality of life” often refers to work rules ensuring a fair work/life balance such that when at work, the pilot is productive so as to maximize their time off and freedom from having to work additional trips on days off. Unfortunately, at PAL Airlines, chronic short-staffing leads to pilots working more hours and on scheduled days off. Compounding the problem is an inability for pilots to have much control over the actual schedules flown (as opposed to the days worked) or to change one’s schedule once assigned.
Additionally, PAL Airlines pilots receive 10 days of sick leave per year and long-term disability (LTD) insurance for when a pilot suffers from an illness or injury of an extended duration that begins after 120 days from the occurrence. The problem is that 10 days’ sick leave isn’t much and can quickly be depleted with one instance of a cold or flu. When a pilot’s sick leave is exhausted and that individual suffers a torn ligament or broken wrist, they can literally go without pay for weeks until they can qualify for LTD, should the condition last that long. To cure this situation, most employers provide their employees with short-term disability (STD) insurance for illnesses or injuries that last longer than a few days, but normally shorter than the 120-day waiting period for LTD.
ALPA sent management a notice to bargain on July 12, 2019, with actual in-person meetings starting later in the year. Rather than agree to a standard negotiating cadence of one or two weeks per month, the managers working for the PAL Group of Companies are only permitted to schedule two or maybe three days per month—likely with the idea that such minimal efforts will allow the company to avoid providing employees with any meaningful workplace improvements for quite some time.
Given the employer’s foot-dragging, the pilots have had to endure over two years of negotiations—more than enough time for any Canadian union to secure a first collective agreement—without an agreement in sight. Normally, labour groups will seek retroactive pay to make up for such employer-induced delays, and the PAL pilots will seek such compensation. However, compensation alone does not make up for the extra flying, infringement into pilots’ days off, and other standardized rules and benefits that only a collective agreement can provide.
The pilots’ Negotiating Committee has presented management’s negotiators with all contractual provisions except for compensation. However, large differences remain between the two sides on many sections, and it is entirely likely that the PAL Airlines pilots will be forced to file for conciliation assistance with the Canadian government’s Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Once such a filing is made, the parties have 60 days to reach an agreement with a conciliator’s assistance, or absent an extension by the parties to that timeline, a 21-day cooling off period begins, after which the pilots may go out on strike or engage in some other form of self-help.
Last year, as our province started shutting down due to the spread of Covid-19 throughout Canada and the world, the PAL Airlines’ pilots were deemed essential workers by the Newfoundland government. As such, we continued operating our flights under the strictest of pandemic-related safety standards. However, there were also occupational difficulties that our pilots endured.
First, unlike many other carriers in North America, PAL Airlines made it difficult for pilots to be properly protected throughout the pandemic. Just about every other airline in Canada and the US entered into detailed agreements with their frontline employees handling several pandemic related issues such as providing paid leave for pilots exposed to Covid-19, protecting against layoffs, and more. Unfortunately, at PAL Airlines, the company’s managers encouraged pilots to take vacation to avoid layoffs, and ultimately, forced the employees to take significant pay reductions while the airline seemed to thrive throughout the pandemic with new aircraft acquired and new destinations opened.
Second, the Newfoundland government’s rules for essential workers also created additional stress for pilots and their families. Specifically, anytime a pilot left Newfoundland, even if they only landed in a destination, performed a post-flight walk around, and then came back to Newfoundland, that pilot was required to isolate for 14 days before spending time with their families or returning to work. It was not uncommon for pilots to operate a one-day trip out of the province, spend 14 days in isolation, fly another trip out of the province, and then isolate again for 14 days. During an eight-month period, we had pilots who spent more time in isolation than not on account of our flying schedules, which the company failed to mitigate despite our pleas for assistance.
While our pilot group firmly believes that as active members of the Newfoundland and Labrador communities, we have an obligation and duty to help our neighbors. We took great pride in delivering medical equipment, vaccines, and medical supplies to those in need. However, our gripe lies with our senior managers who put profits over pilots and other employee groups in forcing us to take concessions while the carrier seemed to thrive throughout this period especially with our main competitors – Air Canada and WestJet – pulling out of the province.