SWISS ‘eyes cheaper Indian flight crews’
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SWISS ‘eyes cheaper Indian flight crews’
Swiss International Air Lines is looking to hire Indian cabin crews to the Canadian city of Montreal, with the aim of reducing costs.
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Their salaries amount to CHF580-950 per month, CH Media newspapers reported, citing sources within the company.
“We are constantly evaluating different options to make the best use of our cabin crew,” a spokesperson for the carrier told the newspapers, stressing, however, that no final decision has been taken so far.
The Lufthansa subsidiary already employs around 230 so-called International Cabin Crew Members at bases in India, Thailand, China and Japan. These employees wear Swiss uniforms but, with the exception of the Japanese crews, do not have a collective labour agreement and earn significantly less than their Swiss colleagues.
According to the company, wages in India vary between 65,000 and 106,000 rupees, equivalent to about CHF580-950 per month. By comparison, the starting salary for crews in Switzerland is just over CHF3,800.
The carrier justifies the employment of personnel from abroad on certain routes on linguistic and cultural grounds. Moreover, this is regulated and limited by the collective agreement with the Kapers union, the press officer explained.
However, Kapers strongly criticised this practice, calling it a “classic example of wage dumping”. The union announced that it intends to negotiate better working conditions with the company by the end of the year.
Translated from Italian by DeepL/mga
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