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The aviation industry has a right to an international workforce
Last month’s Aviation Intelligence Reporter discussed concerns in the aviation industry about the use of self-employment contracts and ‘social dumping’. Social dumping is the rather emotive term used to describe the hiring of staff from countries with lower wages and basic contracts.
The industry has been up-in-arms about Norwegian Air Shuttle’s (NAS) decision to use Asia-based crew on its routes to the US. NAS’ pilots and flights attendants are employed through an employment agency based in Singapore, and many of the pilots are based in Bangkok. Naturally, complaints have come from United, Delta and American Airlines. Meanwhile, the European Cockpit Association (ECA) hasn’t been shy about joining in and has expressed its fears that such practices undermine safety.
Concern about the impact of foreign workers on jobs and wages is nothing new. Many of the recent complaints about social dumping in the aviation industry are being voiced in the European Parliament where governments obviously have an interest in keeping unemployment rates low, ensuring their citizens pay their taxes and maintaining a high standard of living for their electorates. Recent complaints would suggest the aviation industry is also passionate about these issues.
There is of course a social aspect to this issue. It goes without saying that workers should be paid a wage that allows them to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Employees should also be protected by labour laws and have safe working practices. And of course, both employees and employers should pay their taxes.
However, we struggle to believe that these complaints about ‘asymmetric employment’ are a result of the aviation industry’s social conscious getting the better of it, or its sudden preoccupation with unemployment rates and tax evasion.
Rather, its concerns are more about the competitive threat. Lower staff costs means lower fares, and therefore a greater competition threat to other airlines. Meanwhile, airline crew fear for their jobs and union-negotiated salaries.
The ECA’s safety concerns shouldn’t be automatically dismissed. However, it seems unlikely that an airline like NAS would put safety (and therefore its business) at risk by employing staff who put commercial interests before the safety of themselves and their passengers. Again, we suspect safety concerns are not the real reason the ECA is so upset by these employment contracts.
Aviation is a global and liberalised industry. Like many other global industries, it should not be unexpected to see the airlines starting to use low-cost labour from overseas. For years firms have been happy for their goods to be manufactured in Asia, and to out-source customer services to call centres in places like India and the Philippines. Why shouldn’t the aviation industry also embrace the global labour market available to it?
