AIRZETA Co., a domestic cargo-only airline, has ended up taking legal action after labor and management clashed over how to set pilot seniority following its acquisition of Asiana Airlines' cargo division.
According to the aviation industry on the 20th, the AIRZETA Co. pilots' union (AZPU) filed for relief with the Incheon Regional Labor Relations Commission on the 16th. A relief application is a process in which, when a worker is punished with dismissal, leave, suspension, transfer, or pay cut without just cause, the labor commission adjudicates and orders remedies such as compensation for damages.
Air Incheon, the predecessor of AIRZETA Co., acquired Asiana Airlines' cargo division last year and relaunched under its new name. AIRZETA Co. reached a wage and collective agreement with the Asiana Airlines Incheon chapter (APU) in February, but conflict has continued as the company and pilots formerly with Air Incheon failed to narrow differences over establishing a new pilot seniority system.
The union said that after the integration with Asiana Airlines, the company set pilot seniority solely by airline hiring year, unfairly adjusting the treatment of incumbent pilots. According to the union, in January a first officer who was slated for promotion to captain on AIRZETA Co.'s B737 saw the promotion ranking pushed back into the 100s under the new seniority system.
The union argues that pilots originally with AIRZETA Co. endured relatively poor benefits and welfare in anticipation of rapid promotion to captain. It emphasized that seniority should not be set solely by airline date of hire but should consider a variety of factors such as operation scale and aircraft type.
Management countered that setting pilot seniority falls under personnel authority and said the system was finalized and announced last year through consultations with the union.
Along with the relief application, the union is calculating damages for roughly 50 incumbent AIRZETA Co. pilots under the new seniority system. Once the damage assessment is complete, it plans to file a damages suit against the company.
A pilot with AIRZETA Co. said, "A chemical bonding is out of the question now," adding, "Tensions are also deepening between the AIRZETA Co. pilots' union and the Asiana Airlines union."
Industry watchers expect the internal conflict at AIRZETA Co. over pilot seniority to affect Korean Air Lines as well. Korean Air Lines is also in a situation where the pilots' union is moving to secure the right to strike over seniority issues.
An aviation industry official said, "The labor commission's decision on the relief application involving AIRZETA Co., or the court's judgment in any subsequent damages suit, will be a variable in labor-management talks at Korean Air Lines."