Finnair allowed to conceal salaries of its Asian flight attendants

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Finland's Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) has decided that the salaries the Finnish national airline Finnair pays its Asian hired staff, as well as the terms of employment under which they are hired, are a business secret.
      The ruling means that the plaintiff, the Finnish Cabin Crew Union (SLSY), cannot - by referring to a court decision - compare the salaries paid to the Finnish and the Asian cabin crew.
      SLSY argues that the hired Chinese and Thai air hostesses working on the Finnair routes to Asia receive lower pay and work under poorer terms of employment than the airline's own staff.
      "We are outraged", declares SLSY chairman Mauri Koskenniemi. "The decision proves the complete lack of transparency in the Finnish society".
      Koskenniemi predicts that the KHO decision is a test case that will be ferociously exploited by others using foreign labour.
      "In future cases employers can refer to salaries paid to their foreign workers as a business secret. This information will not be disclosed even to shop stewards", worries Koskenniemi.
      He predicts this will encourage other Finnish employers to exploit foreign labour as well.
      "Still, we will continue to search for new evidence and we will carry on with the case", Koskenniemi promises.
     
According to personnel manager Hannu Huopaniemi of Finnair's air traffic group, KHO arrived at a result where the terms of employment and the salary information remained secret, because they were part of a larger agreement between Finnair and the temp agency used. "As the agreement was one entity, the court saw it as impossible to separate these matters."
      According to Huopaniemi, Finnair would have had nothing against drawing up a collective labour agreement for the Asian staff. However, when using temp agencies such a practice is not possible.
      "At one time a police investigation looked into the salaries of the Asian workers with the conclusion that they stood up to a comparison with the wages paid to Finnish workers", Huopaniemi concludes.
     
The core of the dispute between SLSY and Finnair is whether the Asian hired labour should be paid the same wages as Finnair's own cabin crew.
      The labour authorities demand in their work permit directives that an employer complies with the minimum wages postulated in the field's prevailing collective labour agreement.
      The problem is the flight attendants' wages comprise all kinds of bonuses. A newly recruited air hostess's basic salary is only EUR 1,200 per month, but at its highest the income can reach up to 2,825 per month even in the lowest wage class.
      A broad interpretation of the collective labour agreement makes it possible for Finnair to pay the hired labour no more than the basic salary. This way the remuneration paid to the Asian temp workers complies with the minimum level set in the collective labour agreement.
      SLSY, however, claims that in their understanding the wages paid to the Thai and the Chinese air hostesses are even below the basic level of EUR 1,200, perhaps not more than EUR 700-1,000 per month.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Union says Finnair Asian flight attendants still underpaid (24.1.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat