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A former Immigration Minister of New Zealand, Tuariki John Delamere, has slammed the 76 percent state-owned Air New Zealand as a 'flying sweatshop' for paying its 30 Shanghai-based flight attendants a quarter of what its home-based crew was getting, and less than the legal minimum wage in New Zealand. Here's the mile-high wage gap as revealed by the New Zealand Herald:
China-based flight attendants:
Annual base pay NZ$6240 (RMB 35,200)
Hourly rate (Herald calculation based on 40-hour week): NZ$3.25 (RMB18.33)
Daily allowance on long-haul flights: NZ$55 (RMB310)New Zealand-based flight attendants:
Annual base pay NZ$24,000 (RMB135,382)
Hourly rate (Herald calculation based on 40-hour week): NZ$11.54 (RMB 65.11)
Daily allowance on long-haul flights: NZ$170 (RMB959)
Said one ex-crew member by the name of Crystal Zeng of her "miserable" working conditions:
"I remember feeling the pain when I see the others being able to go out to party while we don't even have enough money for movies and McDonald's.""Unlike the Kiwi crew who get cash allowances, what we get is tied to having meals at the hotel and a Chinese restaurant, and if we don't eat at a specific time, we have to go without food. We felt like prisoners in the hotel."
[The only time we felt free to go out was when] "kind people from the Kiwi crew ask us out and offer to pay for our drinks".
Other Chinese staff have revealed "growing unhappiness about money issues" and "staff being disgusted at being treated like monkeys and being paid peanuts".
Air New Zealand says it does not hire its Chinese staff directly, but were seconded by another Chinese company, FASCO, which sets salaries based on market relativity in China. Nevertheless, all Chinese crew members were given New Zealand work permits citing Air NZ as the employer. One air stewardess says they were all essentially duped:
"We were led to believe that we will be working for Air NZ, then after we are successful, they drop the bomb telling us we are to sign a contract with a Chinese company and will be employed under Chinese terms."
The scandal is now being hotly debated in the highest echelons of the New Zealand government and this is what Prime Minister Helen Clark told reporters:
"I would imagine that Air New Zealand is paying the going rate in China. It has, I believe, a very low level of attrition of staff there which suggests that probably the rate is fair in comparison to others."If you are asking me would I expect a market rate in Shanghai to be the same as New Zealand's, not I wouldn't. No more than I would expect the London rate to be the same," she told reporters.
"In the end, Air New Zealand has to make judgements about what constitutes the New Zealand experience on the planes but certainly it does source crews from elsewhere. Sometimes they will be paid more, as I would suggest is the case with London. Sometimes the market rate will be less, as is undoubtedly the case in Shanghai."
Related links
NZ Herald: Revealed: Air New Zealand's mile-high pay gap
NZ Herald: Chinese flight attendant battles to return to NZ
NZ Herald: Air NZ pay disparity Govt issue - union
NZ Herald: Cheap Chinese labour paid the going rate - PM
Photo by Thomas Cuelho
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Boo fricking hoo: call Upton Sinclair. Didn't they know their salaries when they signed their employment contracts? If they aren't happy, they should just quit. For every one victim, I'll give you 1M other people in China that would gladly take that job for even less money and appreciate the chance to visit Middle Earth. I also thought it was FESCO, not FASCO.
i agree with el jefe, mostly.
the only counter argument i can think of is perhaps the shanghainese staff didn't realize/weren't told of the difference in purchasing power parity outside of china. most average earning chinese people are stunned when i tell them that their monthly salaries will only get them 3 or 4 meals in restaurant where i'm from.
An hourly rate of 18rmb for a flight attendant?! That's ridiculous and of course they should complain! And you others better show some damn sympathy, since these people have a shitload of responsibility for a whole plane full of people. When they close the door you don't want it to open in flight later because they didnt get a meal at the hotel and worked sloppy!
Also how can you as a foreigner be happy with these low wages in China? You better hope they will rise soon, or there will be no jobs left in your country.
Haven't Chinese learned by now that foreign companies come to China to work them hard for tiny wages?
it's FASCO, which is different from FESCO.
FIASCO
Tesco?
FASCO? more like FIASCO! right? yeah? innit?
but jefe's right. THEY SIGNED THE CONTRACTS. If their pay is under what the contract says, then that's another story. Otherwise there's a signature showing that they knew exactly what they were getting into.
They live in Shanghai, where cost of living, and average wages are different than NZ. If they were just to visit NZ as tourists, there would be the same difference in their spending power. The fact that they're surrounded by people who come from different places is what makes them unhappy. Keeping up with the Joneses.
Solidarity forever! Nice to see the harshness in full flow here. I guess you folks believe that unions keep wages low because companies can't afford to pay the high ones they demand. I'll bet that if this is true the Shanghainese can seek legal restitution somehow. International aviation is regulated to some degree. Still it is amazing to see so many folks siding strongly with the corporation in its relentless pursuit of the bottom line against the lowly worker. You should remember the old saying, the rich man is not your friend...
They should be paid a little less than the New Zealand-based staff. Most international companies adjust the salaries of workers according to what country they are based in or where they were hired. This is standard practice, and it makes sense. What makes this hard for a flight attendant is that they are so often required to travel. I can understand the feeling of hardship.
I am surprised Air New Zealand doesn't have any sort of vouchers in place for foreign travel or something similar. I am not sure if this is done in airlines, but it would make sense. They could find a way to adjust salaries to where flight attendants live while ensuring they at least had enough money to eat and move around while abroad.
An interesting detail would be to compare this to what the average (bilingual?) domestic airline employee gets paid in China.
To Les: I don't buy the notion that business in general is evil. To the specific point, when I try to imagine what might be a big, evil corporation, Air New Zeland is hardly it. Bigger than one disgruntled employee, yes, therefore evil and corporate. China has enough problems with consumer prices already. I also dream of someday living in a world powered only by good vibes, etc, and so forth.
I especially like the second link where the lady is surprised and upset that her New Zeland work permit was revoked once she quit. Hope for her sake that her next employer doesn't do any reference checks
65 kuai/hr. for the New Zealand employees is also really shit. I don't know about working for an airline, I imagine that the workers are still often based in their home countries, & 65/hr. in New Zealand gets about the same or even less than 18kuai/hr. in Shanghai.
this salary is already much more than domestic airlines in China. And for base salary is not too bad at all, because for FA,we have a lot of allowance, and good benefits like free tickets every year,some extra annual leave days every year, and family can have very cheap flight tickets too. But that's true, we have to work very hard for it, but it's the reality. And they should know everything before they signed the contract,if you are not happy, then quit, find a better airline to work for.Nothing need to complain, because if you don't do it, lots of girls still want to do it,right? I am happy with what I have now.
The only bad thing about FASCO, the chinese company is, if you are in this airline now, you can't apply for other airlines until you quit yoru current job first, that makes a lot ppl afraid to quit. And also, every foreign airlines can't come to China to hire FA directly, have to go through them, that's the law.
Btw,I don't believe 18RMB/per hour is true, I think it's ground duty allowance, in-flight hour allowance must be much higher than that.
although i know when you compare to other FAs based in other countries,we will feel it's unfair, but it's life. At least it's much cheaper to live here.
I hope this works and makes their salary higher, then our company maybe will consider rise our salary too, ^_^ (not possible,haha)
EL JEFE; I never advanced "the notion that business in general is evil" nor do I "dream of someday living in a world powered only by good vibes, etc, and so forth." The fact that business looks to the bottom line should be well known, even by people who love business. The fact that workers need to join together to get more of the wealth that they create by their labor is also seemingly obvious. Its how the world works. I was expressing my disbelief that the folks reaming the underpaid Chinese workers understood the reasons behind their complaints. 'Greedy workers' is right up there with 'pilot error' when it comes to the workplace and its vicissitudes.
if you are unhappy with your pay you could quit or you could organize and demand higher pay.
for sure the company will try to screw you if they can get away with it, that's life. but organizing resistance to getting screwed is also part of life.
i'm sure the tickets aren't cheaper if you fly on a plane with chinese staff, so they have legit beef in my opinion. if they are successful in getting more money it will benefit them and all the future air nz chinese staff.
sure domestic pay is even lower, and that is even more of a bummer because flights in china aren't all that cheap either. you can fly within europe for similar prices using discount airlines.
you can talk about the macro shit forever but what it comes down to is: do you want more of your money going to the ceo or to the flight crew? i'm sure the ceo will be rich regardless but a little more money makes a big difference if you aren't making much.
i say hook the people up. not a damn thing wrong with collectively renegotiating a contract.
i'd have to agree with Les and skaching, and I don't see why signing a work contract implies that you are morally obliged not to complain. According to the post, the complaint was publicized by a NZ politician, NOT by the chinese themselves. Furthermore, his allegation was that they were getting paid lower than the NZ minimum wage. The principle that different labor markets=different wages is basic economics and a truism in this world--however, if NZ law says that all employees of the airlines have to be paid min wage or above, then it's a straightforward legal issue. Is the company breaking the law, or not?
On a broader level, it would be *nice* for the company to show a little generosity. Les is right, i think, to bring up the issue of CEO pay and minimum wage versus a living wage, because that is the larger context that many of us from Western countries live with.
FYI: The case was publicised by the ex flight attendant Crystal Zeng who took her case to Tuariki John Delamere, the former NZ Immigration Minister who is now an immigration consultant.