Serious internal problems have emerged within the two major domestic airlines in Taiwan, China Airlines and EVA Air. China Airlines keeps having issues with their new uniforms, but it is said the executives in charge of the uniforms have been rewarded.

Flight attendants of EVA Air are also dissatisfied about their working schedules, but the company sent out resigning applications saying, “Flight attendants who do not show their devotion can choose to leave."

Newtalk reports, Typhoon Soudelor recently caused a lot of chaos. The staff of EVA Air was very disappointed on how the tasks were scheduled and the inhumane working hours. EVA Air announced they will provide employees with the opportunity to re-examine their work. The company says, “The aviation industry is one that requires enthusiasm to maintain your original motive of entering the industry."

A source in the aviation industry says training flight attendants requires costs. There are penalties for terminating a contract earlier in order to retain staff members. But rules within each company are different.

Apple Daily reports EVA Air says the nature of flight attendants should include love of flying, helping others, being responsible and having team spirit. Some of the flight crew might hold different beliefs so it’s hard for them to focus on working in the aviation industry.

How much penalty do employees have to pay if they terminate their contract earlier?

EVA Air says the crew sign three-year contracts and they decrease the amount of training compensation according to the number of days they are on duty. The company is unwilling to disclose the highest amount of compensation. But it is said the highest amount is NT$ 200,000 (approximately US$ 6,100) if flight attendants leave the company once they finish training.

An anonymous EVA Air staff says employees have been constantly criticizing the company and Chairman K (referring to Chairman Zhang Guo-wei) on the Internet recently. The company must have made this decision because Chairman K was unhappy and disappointed with these comments. China Airlines is recruiting flight attendants at the moment and this incident might lead to some people running towards China Airlines.

The flight attendant says the typhoon was not an unexpected factor, so the crew waited for a long time to dispatch. They probably waited ten hours from reporting for duty to actually taking off, and this doesn’t include the time they were on duty nor the delay time. The employees are merely asking for reasonable working conditions and it doesn’t mean they don’t have passion. They didn’t think the company would ask the employees to resign.

China Airlines also has problems of its own.

Liberty Times reports, the uniforms China Airlines asked designers to create have been criticized that they look like Mazinger-Z. There are also staff members that say the abbreviations on the new name tags are indecent and the new shoes and stockings are of poor quality. Flight attendants have had severe skin allergies and pain so the China Airline Union recently launched an activity refusing to wear the new uniforms.

However, China Airlines recently rewarded internal communications for success on the new uniforms and employees were dissatisfied with the announcement.

Regarding this, China Airlines says they have extended the transition period of implementing the new uniforms to the end of the year and have asked footwear manufacturers to station in the park. The airline company says they are already doing enough and the colleagues in charge of related cases have been working hard.

Translated by Sarah Grasdijk and Olivia Yang
Edited by Olivia Yang

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