A Tri-City member of parliament will table a private member’s bill in the House of Commons on Monday, Oct. 28.
The bill by NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo calls for the end of unpaid work for Canada’s flight attendants.
Zarrillo said flight attendants — a profession largely made up of women — “volunteer” about 35 hours a month to airlines.
She wants all of their work, from pre-flight to delays, to be paid in full.
“No one should ever be forced to work for free,” said Zarrillo, the NDP critic for Infrastructure and Communities, Seniors and Disability Inclusion, and the party’s deputy health critic. “But under the watch of Liberals and Conservatives, Canada’s flight attendants have been exploited by extremely profitable airlines and this must stop now.”
Zarrillo will be joined on Monday by:
- representatives from the airline division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
- CUPE 407 president Alia Hussain
- CUPE Local 4094 president Carolyn Bugnon
- CUPE Local 4091 president Natasha Stea
- CUPE Local 4055 president Rena Kisfalvi
"Canada's flight attendants have been sounding the alarm about the abuse of unpaid work in our industry and we applaud the NDP for answering the call with this legislation," said Air Canada flight attendant Wesley Lesosky, the president of CUPE's airline division, in a news release.
"We're calling on the government and other Opposition parties to back this NDP bill that sets the standard for what flight attendants need going forward and get it passed before the next election."
It’s not the first time the matter has come to the federal government’s attention: Last year, the NDP sponsored a CUPE petition — with more than 17,000 signatures — calling for an end to unpaid work in the airline industry.