The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday made significant concessions to EVA Airways Corp, saying that the flight attendants on strike would no longer insist on getting a raise.
The union had originally made eight demands, including that the company increase its per diem, or hourly layover allowance, from NT$90 to NT$150; limit the raise to union members; pay employees double if they work on public holidays; increase flight attendants’ rest time between shifts for one-day round-trip flights to Tokyo, Beijing and seven other destinations; and allow union members to join the airline’s disciplinary committee and be represented on its board.
The union issued a statement yesterday saying it is willing to adjust its demands, including accepting a previous offer from the company to give bonuses to flight attendants instead of an increase in per diem.
Photo: Wei Chin-yun, Taipei Times
The union would also agree to scrap its “free-rider clause” and allow non-union flight attendants to receive the same benefits, it said.
In addition, it would accept the company’s offer to hold monthly employer-staff meetings that routinely review flight attendants’ working conditions and provide information about company recruitment plans, it said.
Meanwhile, the union will ask for longer rest time between shifts for flights to Tokyo, Beijing and back in certain months, it said.
Union representative Lee Ying (李瀅) said she hopes the company would see the adjusted demands and understand that the union is very sincere about resolving their differences.
The union has offered a more detailed version of the adjusted demands to the Ministry of Labor to be delivered to the company, she said outside EVA headquarters in Taoyuan’s Nankan (南崁).
The union is waiting for the company’s response, she said, adding that she hoped the dispute would end soon.
Since the strike began on Thursday last week, more than 2,300 EVA flight attendants have submitted their passports, mainland travel permits and employee IDs to the union, it said.
So far, 45 have asked to retrieve their identification documents in person and 19 have gotten them back, it said.
Union representative Yeh Yi-fan (葉依凡) said some have not yet retrieved their documents because the union needs two days to complete the procedure for returning them.
Members who wish to retrieve the documents need to go with a lawyer to a security company where the documents are stored and sign a form, she said.
As the union’s lawyer had said before, there is no problem with the union’s return procedures, she said.
“The union will never deliberately delay the process of returning the documents or not return them,” she added.
EVA yesterday said it was studying the union’s new appeals and was willing to restart negotiations to resolve the dispute.
At press time yesterday, the time for the next round of negotiation had not been confirmed, EVA spokesman David Chen (陳耀銘) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
However, EVA’s legal actions against the union, including retrieving employee IDs, would not be halted, Chen said, urging the union to return the documents of flight attendants who want to return to work.
As the strike entered its eighth day, EVA has canceled 344 flights and accumulated NT$1.54 billion (US$49.5 million) in revenue losses.
The stock fell 0.33 percent to close at NT$15 in Taipei trading yesterday.
While Chen declined to comment on whether the union’s new appeals would help both parties reach an agreement, the union’s compromises on three demands, raising the per diem, appointment of a labor director and “free-rider clause” matched the company’s bottom line.
Additional reporting by Kao Shih-ching and CNA
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS