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Chen
Jianguo quit his job as a pilot for Xiamen Airlines Co.
after working 90 days straight. His employer demanded
the equivalent of more than $1 million in compensation,
and he’s been banned from the cockpit ever since.
“The
company has adopted all kinds of unfair methods to
punish me,’’ said Chen, 35. “It’s to give notice to
their other pilots that the same thing could happen to
them.”
China’s
largest carriers, including Air China Ltd., China
Eastern Airlines Corp. and China Southern Airlines Co.,
are struggling to hang onto crews, enforcing lifetime
contracts as they expand at a time when increasing
demand for air travel is creating opportunities abroad.
To protest their treatment, pilots have staged hunger
strikes and turned flights around in midair.
“It’s
unrelated to reality, somewhat like slavery,” said
Gideon Ewers, a London-based spokesman for the
International Federation of Air Line Pilots’
Associations.
China,
the world’s second-largest market for air travel, is
expected to expand its fleet by about 30 percent to
1,550 aircraft by 2010, according to the nation’s
aviation regulator. Bottlenecks at flight schools may
leave a shortage of 2,000 pilots by that time, said Gao
Hongfeng, vice director of the General Administration of
Civil Aviation.
To
prevent a bidding war for talent, the government issued
a regulation in May 2006, allowing airlines to demand
compensation for losing staff. Pilots are required to
pay their employers 700,000 yuan ($102,300) to 2.1
million yuan if they quit.
“Everyone should follow the rules,” said Chen Feng, the
Harvard University-educated chairman of Grand China Air,
the parent of Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest
carrier. “If someone insists on leaving, he should pay
the price.”
A
30-percent shortage of pilots may result in significant
increases in staff costs for Chinese airlines this year
and next, said Ally Ma, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in
Hong Kong. Ma rates Air China and China Southern “sell,”
and has a “hold” rating on China Eastern.
Narrow
profit margins limit the ability of airlines to raise
salaries. China Eastern’s operating profit margin was
0.7 percent last year, Air China’s was 0.8 percent and
China Southern’s was 2.9 percent. That compares with
13.8 percent for Singapore Airlines Ltd. and 6.3 percent
for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
The
rising cost of fuel is cutting those margins. The
Chinese government, which sets domestic prices for jet
fuel, has raised prices by 37 percent this year.
Pilot
shortage
While
airlines such as Emirates and India’s Kingfisher
Airlines Ltd. may recruit pilots from other countries,
Chinese carriers are enforcing lifetime contracts to
keep their flight crews at home.
In
April, Shanghai Airlines sued nine pilots, asking for 35
million yuan after they resigned, according to the
city’s Jingan district court.
Zheng
Zhihong, a former captain at China Eastern, was
initially ordered to pay as much as 12.6 million yuan
when he resigned last year. Zheng agreed to pay 1.4
million yuan in April after arbitration and hearings
that lasted almost a year.
Chen’s
arbitration case has lasted so long he’s now in a race
to protect his flying privileges. He has been out of the
cockpit since December 2006. His license will expire if
he doesn’t fly for two years.
“The
airlines are trying to make the process long and
difficult,” Chen said. “It’s an alert or threat to their
pilots on position.”
Gao
Huiling, the official at Xiamen Airlines’ legal
department who is in charge of the case, declined to
comment before another round of court hearings.
Arbitration for labor disputes should be solved within
90 days, according to court guidelines. Guan Qingyong, a
director at the arbitration center in Xiamen, said he
couldn’t talk to the media about Chen’s case.
Pilots
are fighting back
The
pilots of 21 China Eastern flights from southeastern
Yunnan province turned their planes around and returned
to their departing airports on March 31 and April 1, the
carrier said. The airline punished 13 of the pilots. The
government fined China Eastern 1.5 million yuan and gave
some of its slots for flights to the region to Air China
and China Southern.
It isn’t
the first time the airline has faced protests. As early
as in 2006, six pilots went on a five-day hunger strike
outside the carrier’s headquarters in Shanghai. They
called off the strike for health reasons.
Chen
continues to fight his case through the courts.
At an
arbitration hearing in Xiamen, the pilot sat on a
stained sofa with migrant workers quarreling with their
employers over sums of $100. Though he waited for two
hours for his case to be heard, Chen said the principal
was worth the struggle.
“No
matter how much I earn, I should have the basic right to
quit or give up the earnings,” Chen said. |
