MONTREAL - Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has rejected Air Canada's request for a waiver that would have allowed the airline to lay off flight attendants Nov. 1 without first setting up a joint union-company committee to examine ways to ease the impact of the cuts.
"After carefully examining the application, I have decided that there are insufficient grounds to grant a waiver to Air Canada," Blackburn said in a statement Friday.
The minister has offered the airline and the union access to mediators and instructed department officials to monitor the situation to ensure that any affected Air Canada employees receive their entitlements under the Canada Labour Code.
Under the code, the airline must create a joint committee with employees to try to minimize the impact of the Montreal-based carrier's planned streamlining of about 2,000 jobs, including more than 600 flight attendants, from its 24,000-employee workforce.
Blackburn had warned the airline he wouldn't grant their request if protections and supports in employee collective agreements weren't equal to or stronger than group termination provisions of the Canada Labour Code.
The code requires that an employer than intends to terminate the employment of 50 or more employees within four weeks give the minister and employees at least 16 weeks notice before the termination date.
Air Canada says the decision isn't expected to delay implementation of Air Canada's streamlining efforts announced June 17 to cut capacity by seven per cent and lay off up to 2,000 workers.
Airline spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said the airline's goal has never been to avoid consultation about mitigation efforts with its unions.
"It has always been the company's objective to proceed with mitigation discussions as quickly as possible for the sake of affected employees," she said. "The only question was whether those talks take place within the framework of our collective agreement or the Labour Code."
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the flight attendants, said it was pleased with the minister's decision, but were unclear about what impact it would ultimately have on the timing and size of layoffs.
The cuts by Canada's biggest airline reflect sharply rising costs for jet fuel that have affected most of the world's carriers and forced tens of thousands of job cuts and significant capacity reductions throughout the industry.
As part of Air Canada's cuts, the airline plans to close flight attendant bases in Halifax and Winnipeg and eliminate 630 flight attendant jobs by Nov. 1. The cuts will leave bases in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.
CUPE plans rallies at Air Canada bases across the country Monday against the closures to pressure Air Canada to stop the layoffs.
"These drastic measures don't make sense," said Lesley Swann, president of CUPE's Air Canada bargaining unit, which represents 7,200 flight attendants.
"There's no justification for the closures, and cutting attendants is only going to reduce the company's capacity to provide passengers with quality services."
