The CBC is reporting that the supreme court is investigating whether Air Canda flight attendants should get paid as much as pilots.
The paragraph that stood out for me was:
“The section [of the human rights act] says it is discriminatory for an employer to pay different wages to male and female employees in the same “establishment” who are performing work of equal value.”
That may be true. However, since when is a flight attendants duities and a pilots duities of equal value? Who has more responsibility?
Im curious to hear your comments. You can also take a look at what Aviatrix (a female pilot) had to say on the issue.
Saw that on the news last night and laughed my ass off. Lets see serving drinks or holding the lives of a couple hundred people in your hands. Give me a break.
Yeah.. but is more that just having peoples lives in your hands. You have to get them to where they need to go.
Granted, navigation nowadays is much easier with GPS. Trying to imagine finding your way traveling at 800km/h 40,000 feet in the air when all you had was traditional radio navigation aids.
It’s all about paying your dues. F/A train for like a month.. while it takes pilots years before they can fly the jumbos.
Last time I flew, half the flight attendants were male. Gay, but male, all the same ;)
It sounds like Air Canada adopted the wrong strategy — arguing over the “establishment” point rather than the “equal value” point — and they might get shot down. It’s pretty obvious that they don’t do work of equal value, irrespective of gender concerns. I mean, you can fly a plane without flight attendants, but just try doing so without a pilot.
As Andys put it (to me on irc):
“I think of it this way:
If a flight attendant flakes out, locks themselves in the toilet and has a cigarette for the rest of the flight, passengers get annoyed.
If the PILOT did this, passengers die when the plane runs out of fuel.
In fact I sincerely wish there were no flight attendants. Seriously, whats wrong with just us and the pilot and one copilot? I don’t want your frigging overpriced boutique beverages, and i brought my own water (i like watching the bottle crumple when we land) ;)”