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Australian and Asia-Pacific airline Jetstar is under attack by consumers for claims that they have been exploiting their cheaply paid foreign cabin crew.

Jetstar Australia is a long-haul low-cost carrier that flies to 37 destinations, both domestic and international, with 76 planes (A mix of 52 Airbus A320’s, a few Boeing 787-8’s and some Bombardier Q400’s). They also have 99 planes on order (One would wish they would order one more plane to have that magical three-digit number).

The controversy has been sparked by their crew management on their international routes from Australia. They have been utilising an almost fully foreign cabin crew (Mostly Indonesians, Thai, and other south-east Asian nationals with one Australian crew member to do announcements and give a sense of familiarity for the Australian passengers).

As such, they have been paying them far less than the equivalent all Australian crews on their domestic routes (Due to union rules, in Australia all domestic routes must be staffed by Australian based crew, with all the rest, wage and holiday benefits you would expect).

Of course, many people are used to the concept of companies employing cheaper foreign workers to produce goods or services, in fact, it’s been said that these international workers on Jetstar flights are paid much more than they would normally be in their home countries. It’s a common occurrence in the industry with airlines such as Ryanair employing Irish crewmembers or Norwegian employing Asian crew.

These crew members work very hard and are easily capable of providing a service akin to their western crew counterparts.

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However, the outrage gets a little worse when you read about the conditions these poor international staff have to endure.

The Darkside

When we imagine a flight attendant on an international flight, we imagine a 10-hour shift followed by a day or two rest in an exotic city with a return flight home. This is not the case for these international Jetstar staff.

First, on some routes, they are given no rest. They will do a long-haul flight from Bali, then after a quick break, return on the same plane on the same day, leading to shifts that can last 15-20 hours.

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If they are lucky and get a few days off, they are given far less carpe diems than their Australian counterparts. This is an expense given to employees on top of their wage to buy food, get around, and generally take care of themselves whilst they are on call in a foreign country. For Australians, it is at least $128 AUD ($93 USD) every 24 hours, but it’s been reported that some of these international crew are given $60 AUD ($44 USD) for up to thirty-six hours!

“If you have only $30, what can you eat for $30 each day in Melbourne? It’s nearly impossible. We had to sneak in pots and electric pans to cook instant noodles in the hotel, I know it’s forbidden, but we just had to do it.” – Pojchara Kosolchuenvijit, Ex-Jetstar Employee

Plus, some of these layovers are in expensive cities such as Tokyo or Sydney, and travellers will know how little that amount of money will take you in these countries.

Additionally, some of these crew members are employed on a brutal shift schedule known as a swinging shift. They will fly one route from their home country to Australia, then back out to a different foreign country, and back again a few times before returning home. They can be gone up to a week or more.

The icing on the cake of this story is that Jetstar as slowly been sneaking in these crews on domestic flights. They will include a domestic stopover on an international flight, say Melbourne – Sydney – Honolulu, and this domestic leg is completely open for passengers to disembark in Sydney, but it will be completely crewed by their international crew.

They even got caught running an Adelaide to Darwin flight with an international crew with no international leg.

“It sounds like these overseas workers are being put on a domestic flight because the company can get a commercial and cost benefit out of it” – Australian Transport Workers’ Union’s Michael Kaine

And if you think that Qantas, Jetstar’s owner, is not considering the same thing, they actually employee mostly British crew members for their boomerang route (London to Sydney) as its far cheaper.

In summary, one has to wonder if this is just another case of corporate greed or is this part of the race to the bottom to provide as much value to customers?

Would you be willing to pay a little bit more to fly on Jetstar if they paid their international crews the same as Australian?

Information source: ABC Australia