Airline warns workers on perks Grant Robertson Calgary Herald Wednesday, October 16, 2002 Air Canada is threatening to crack down on its employee perks program after a number of staff have been caught abusing their privileges, including selling flight passes and misbehaving aboard planes. The airline has investigated 600 violations in the past year, ranging from concerns about excessive drinking by employees travelling on company passes to staff demanding upgrades, tampering with bookings and ducking service charges. Staff were told by Air Canada this month that the perks -- a key luxury of working for an airline -- are "special benefits" employees could lose. "We hope that by informing you about what is or isn't acceptable, you will do your part to ensure that we don't lose these travel benefits," said Louise Levesque, Air Canada's employee travel co-ordinator. The comments were posted on the company's online employee newsletter and come at a time when feuding between the company and its staff over benefits has been escalating. "We've been fighting a number of battles for a while now on flights and benefits," said Don Johnson, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association, which represents 3,300 employees at the carrier. "Our position has always been if you've got somebody abusing the system, deal with them. But don't make all of the employees bear the brunt of that." Air Canada, which has about 40,000 employees, said its travel concessions are among the best of any airline, offering staff, their partners and children heavy discounts on unfilled seats. But the carrier says some employees have been selling or bartering tickets, exceeding their pass allotment and tampering with reservations to upgrade seats. A few employees have also been found intentionally misprinting tickets to avoid service charges that passengers are required to pay. As well, the company flagged several examples of misconduct, including bad behaviour at gates, dress-code violations and excessive alcohol consumption. The violations have been limited to a "small number" of employees, the online newsletter said. Industry watchers say a move by Air Canada to tighten its employee benefits program is a sign of how cost-conscious the airline has become after recording its worst year of financial losses in 2001. In the past year, Air Canada has moved to restrict the use of passes employees can give to friends or extended family members. Under new rules, staff members must accompany their guests, a change that has seen a decrease in the number of times such perks are being used. Barry Prentice, director of the University of Manitoba's Transportation Institute, said Air Canada faces a tough decision in cracking down on employees. "In many firms, there's kind of these unwritten rules as to how much you let your employees get away with -- because it's a function of morale," said Prentice. "So they have to decide what the price of that is going to be. But Air Canada is really starting to face some hard realities in terms of cost." The cost of offering cheap flights to employees -- a common policy of airlines around the world -- is small, because the seats would otherwise fly empty. If an employee has booked a ticket on the perks program, he or she will be bumped if a paying customer comes along, said Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah. "If there are no seats, then you don't go," she said. The Air Canada Pilots Association doesn't see recent changes to the perks program as an effort to streamline the carrier's operations. Instead, Johnson accuses the airline of using the benefits as a bargaining chip. The pilots are fighting the carrier over reduced flight frequencies and changes to seniority levels, which they argue make it harder to use employee passes. Employees violating the carrier's rules face a wide range of disciplinary measures, starting with warning letters for minor conduct infractions, such as bad behaviour or ignoring dress codes. Staff found selling or bartering their passes -- a process made difficult now that employees must travel with their guests -- face termination, the newsletter said. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (ReadyMix) http://www.readymix.co.tt/ (ReadyMix Cement Ltd) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************