Westjet Flight Attendants Claim They're Paid Less Than Minimum Wage

Kyle Adams - 1031579

Marshall Adlington -0925180

Peer Current Events Article:

WestJet flight attendants claim they're paid less than minimum wage

1. What is the current event and how is it relevant to the material in the course?

Current Event Explanation

The event we chose is a complicated and concerning one. Flight attendants at WestJet airlines have been complaining that they’re being paid less than the $14 an hour minimum wage in Ontario. This is because they only get paid for time in the air rather than all the hours spent in airports before and after flights. Though it is industry standard for flight attendants pay to be based around time spent wheels up to wheels down, most airlines provide more compensation for their time on the ground preparing airplanes for service, deplaning passengers or any activities before or after flights. If WestJet employees spend half an eight-hour day in the air, they would earn the equivalent of $12.64 an hour, less than the $14 minimum in Ontario. Many other airlines have adopted their wage formulas to include time on the ground while others such as Jazz airlines and Air Canada Express are raising their starting wages to $28 to ensure protection from labour laws. Since $28 is double the $14-dollar minimum wage this will ensure that flight attendants at least are at the minimum wage level even if they only get paid for half the time they are working. Many airline unions are pushing for employers to match Jazz to meet minimum wage requirements. If they do not meet the requirements WestJet could be in fact violating federal labour laws.

Benefits

The Calgary based airline claims that they’re profit sharing program is among the best in the industry. Though most employee reviews on sites such as indeed and glassdoor have complained about the low wage. “They pay wayyyyy below market value for every job and play it off like it's okay because we have a measly profit share every six months.” (Glassdoor Review). WestJet employees can invest up to 20 percent of their salary, then all employee contributions are then matched by the company. This is higher than many airlines that offer 10 percent profit sharing. The profit share program does make up for lower wages but unions still argue that having wages below the minimum wage is illegal. Some employees will choose not to participate in the profit sharing program as low-level employees do not believe they have enough impact on the organization to influence profits. This weakness of their profit sharing programs is called “line of sight”. The payout is only every 6 months which is not very frequent for workers who are only there temporarily or in between jobs.

Relevance to the Course

This issue is relevant to many topics brought up throughout the course. The most obvious topic would be labour laws and union relations. Every employer and employee in Canada, including unionized employees, are covered by employment standards legislation. This legislation covers minimum employee entitlements such as wages, paid vacation, and other benefits. The claims employees are making that they are not making above the minimum wage of $14 an hour is a big issue and the company can be fined for it. WestJet employees have been trying to unionize for a while now. WestJet pilots just recently unionized in late October of 2017 and now flight attendants are fighting to unionize through CUPE. CUPE stands for Canada’s Union for Public Employees and represents more than 6500 flight attendants at Air Canada and 11500 worldwide. The CUPE has come recently condemning WestJet for underpaying flight attendants. It has been urging WestJet employees to sign up with the union. This relates to the course as when workers join a union management has less freedom to make decisions. Unions can force WestJet to raise their prices as workers can use tactics such as strikes to influence their decisions. WestJet has been fighting against unionization for years. The WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky has been quoted saying “Unions are opportunistically trying to grow their businesses by targeting WestJetters, because let’s be clear — unions are a business. They increase their revenue by recruiting new members, and WestJet represents an opportunity to significantly increase their profits.” (Bickis, I.). The CEO knows unions will give employees more power to stage walkouts and bargain for increased pay or benefits which will raise the company's bottom line so it is no wonder he is against the union. This topic relates to many parts of the course and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the future.

2.) How has it helped you understand the course material in a better or deeper manner?

The employee compensation issue that involves WestJet and their flight attendants is an event that helps students discover a situation that relates and supports human resource management and many issues that human resources departments are susceptible to. Thus, this article allows students to further analyze, explore and gain a greater understanding of many different aspects of the course content. The CBC article titled WestJet flight attendants claim they’re paid less than minimum wage demonstrates a real-life event that presents issues that strongly relate to valuable course information. All-though we had a strong previous understanding of the content, the article forced us to further research and study the necessary course content in order to fully grasp the article and the supporting claims. More specifically, as WestJet is being criticized for paying employees less than the $14 minimum, we felt the need to attain a stronger understanding of the Employment/Labour Standards, Legal Considerations in Compensation from chapter 11 of the text and also Profit Sharing.

As the main concern presented in the article involves WestJet employees being paid an hourly salary equivalent to $12.64, we realized that this may be an obstruction against the Employment/Labour Standards Act and needed to further attain a greater understanding of the Act, in order to realize the true importance of the issue at hand. The course text defines the Employment/Labour Standards Act (Canada Labour Code) as “Labour laws set minimum standards regarding pay, including minimum wage, maximum hours of work, overtime pay, paid vacation, paid statutory holidays, termination of pay, record keeping of pay information, and more.” (Dessler & Chhinzer). That said, experts claim that WestJet is in fact violating