Weighing in on Unfair Labor Standards at the Gulf Carriers
The ongoing dispute in Washington between the three massively subsidized Gulf carriers — Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways — and the U.S. network airlines American, Delta, and United has largely focused on a specific legal issue: the UAE and Qatar have violated the Open Skies aviation agreements with the United States for years. These agreements — the U.S. has more than 120 with nations worldwide — give U.S. and foreign airlines unrestricted rights to serve the other nation, but prohibit carriers from being subsidized, and thus gain unfair competitive advantage. The U.S. carriers hired forensic accountants and lawyers to document more than $50 billion in subsidies and other unfair benefits to the three state-owned Gulf airlines since 2004. Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar say they take no government money, but none has offered proof (Qatar recently committed to greater financial transparency, to run Qatar Airways on purely commercial terms, and other significant concessions).
Huge subsidies are one way that the Gulf airlines can build their high quality/low cost business model, and grow faster than any other airline. The other is to source almost all their labor from poor countries. All three companies embrace a cynical and inherently inequitable employment model: hire thousands of workers from places like India and the Philippines, treat them poorly, fire them at will, and hire more. Because the Third World is full of people eager to live a better life (and the promise of a glamorous life in a shiny place like Dubai), and glad to send money home to family, the Gulf model is infinitely sustainable.
There’s a disconnect here with a clear trend: consumers in developed countries increasingly expect producers to treat workers humanely. The fair trade movement, which began in Europe, has been steadily gaining ground here in the United States and around the world. We ask about the coffee farmers in Colombia and the seamstresses in Bangladesh, but almost never inquire about services, least of all at an advanced business like an airline. That’s partly because airline workers based in much of the world belong to trade unions that protect wages and working conditions, and partly because of decades of government operational and safety oversight. But it’s also because of the intrinsic modernity of the airline business — surely every carrier with gleaming planes treats their workers well, right?
Wrong. The Gulf airlines project an image of civility and luxury — Jennifer Anniston and Nicole Kidman cooing over onboard showers and the like — but as I have written earlier, they are not “Fair Trade Airlines.”
Workers have almost no rights in the UAE and Qatar. Trade unions are illegal, and even basic due process and fairness are rare. Complaints against employers never become visible, and when they are made, people either quit or get fired. When that happens, they sometimes have to pay their own fare home, and may lose their contributions to the airline pension plan. And as a practical matter, for the many employees whose families back home depend on their remittances, silence and obedience are essential — if you’re an Emirates flight attendant and are able to send $500 a month home to Indonesia so your little sister can go to school and your parents can have a refrigerator, you’re likely willing to endure a lot.
Despite intimidation and harassment as acknowledged HR policy at the Gulf carriers (at a cabin-crew graduation ceremony, Qatar Airways’ CEO once told new employees that he hired 60 spies to monitor employees, and would increase the number to 100), reports are trickling out in greater numbers. In January, the website www.paddleyourownkanoo, aimed at aspiring and current flight attendants, published comments from a flight attendant who had been flying for Emirates for more than a decade. The account sheds light on working conditions, for example, its “fleet of A380 aircraft have around 18 surveillance cameras throughout the cabins — staff are monitored and quickly reprimanded should they be seen to be acting incorrectly.” The posting also noted that Emirates changed its health insurance plan to require cabin crew to pay for up to 30% of the cost of hospital treatment in a city known for expensive medical services. And crew who are sick feel pressure to return to work, because “Salaries are quickly reduced to half pay after just 15 days sick leave.”
A post on paddleyourownkanoo last week relayed a communication from a current Emirates flight attendant who shed light on the airline’s Appearance Management Programme, which cabin crew believe “is deliberately being used to target black flight attendants as a way of dismissing them from the airline.” The informant was concerned that “Emirates management was deliberately targeting flight attendants from certain African countries, alleging that black cabin crew were asked why they couldn’t maintain the same weight as their counterparts from South East Asian countries.” The insider continued, “Those who are deemed to not be looking the part can be grounded immediately and denied any flights for 30 days in order to lose weight. Those who fail to shift enough weight are subjected to disciplinary proceedings, including dismissal.”
A little perspective from this writer, who has been in and near the airline industry for almost 50 years, has flown many times as an extra cabin crewmember, and has been a passenger on more than 130 airlines worldwide: this is not acceptable for any reason. Weight has nothing to do with service quality.
Although the abuses and lack of civil labor standards are more egregious with flight attendants and ground staff, the Gulf carriers, notably Emirates, also treat pilots, their most-skilled workers, poorly. Well-paid pilots are quitting Emirates over disagreements about excessive duty time and other safety concerns. The ruling family that owns Emirates also controls the aviation regulatory agency, the GCAA, which allows them to routinely issue waivers for pilots to exceed the rules on daily and monthly flying hours, clearly compromising flight safety. This would be like the CEO of a U.S. airline running the FAA — as well as all the airports and airport handling companies, plus banks and other regulatory agencies. Two former Emirates pilots who quit the airline over safety concerns believe that pilot fatigue may have contributed to two recent incidents with Emirates A380s that descended to within about 200 feet and 400 feet of the ground while miles from runways at New York JFK and Moscow. You don’t need to be a pilot to recognize that sort of inattention.
Fair labor standards have been an element of trade pacts in tangible goods for decades. Although the global airline industry has its own set of country-to-country agreements, the underlying foundation requiring humane conditions for workers ought to apply. Absent legal protection, however, the same commitment to fair trade and ethical practice that we increasingly embrace in the products we buy should apply to airlines, too. Every traveler who regards herself or himself as a person of good will, equipped with a moral compass, ought to think carefully before booking with Emirates and the other Gulf airlines.
