How much work are Air Canada flight attendants not getting paid for?

Air Canada flight attendants were planning to picket at airports in four major Canadian cities on Monday in what the union is calling a national day of action.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees said demonstrations were set for Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Vancouver International Airport and Calgary International Airport, all at 1 p.m. ET.

Among the issues, CUPE said, is that flight attendants are paid only for “block time,” which begins at takeoff and lasts until landing. The union said attendants are spending time performing “unpaid duties” during ground time before and after flights.

In a briefing note released this month, CUPE noted: “Flight attendants at Air Canada are required to perform unpaid duties every day before and after flights. This includes critical safety checks, boarding and deplaning procedures, assisting passengers with special needs, and preparing the cabin.”

It concludes: “Flight attendants are not paid for a significant portion of their time on the job,” and notes that the safety-related duties are not optional, as they are mandated by Transport Canada.

A 2023 survey of Canadian flight attendants from CUPE’s Airline Division found that they performed unpaid work for 34.86 hours per month, on average — the equivalent of almost one full work week per month.

The survey, which ran between Dec. 10, 2022, and Jan. 11, 2023, received 9,807 responses.

“Unpaid work is a dirty secret in this industry, and one we are determined to stamp out,” said Wesley Lesosky, President of CUPE’s Airline Division, at the time. “The bottom line is, if we’re on the jobsite, in our uniforms, performing work duties then we should be getting paid — full stop.”

In its own statement , Air Canada notes that “the current compensation model was negotiated with and unanimously endorsed by the union’s eight-member bargaining committee, and ratified by the flight attendants, in the last bargaining round.”

It adds: “This model had also been used in previous contracts dating back many years. Air Canada’s approach to flight attendant compensation, including for ground time, is consistent with that at most global carriers. In fact, CUPE reached a new contract with a large Canadian carrier in 2024 that uses this same approach.”

That would be the agreement between CUPE and Air Transat , which gave flight attendants at that airline a 30 per cent pay increase over the five years of the contract. It did not, however, address ground time and block time. “The issue of ground time is discussed with the union as part of a more general conversation about overall compensation,” the airline said.

Most do not. However, in 2022 Delta Air Lines began paying its flight attendants at half their hourly rate for a set 40 to 50 minutes of boarding, depending on the type of aircraft and where it’s headed, according to NPR. Delta is the only major U.S. airline whose flight attendants are not unionized, and the broadcaster suggested the move might be an effort by the airline to discourage unionizing.

After Delta’s decision, American Airlines and its union also agreed to a similar plan.

The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada wrote a letter last week to Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario. In it, he called on her to amend the Canada Labour Code “to require that federally regulated airlines pay flight attendants for all hours they are on duty, not just time spent on the air.”

This would effectively circumvent the union negotiations and also require other airlines in Canada to make similar payments to their flight attendants. “No other federally regulated worker would accept being on the job without being paid,” Poilievre noted.

Flight attendants work long before takeoff and after landing — and deserve to be paid for it.Shadow Minister for Labour @kyleseeback and I are calling on the Carney Liberals to fix this unfair system and ensure fair pay for every minute on the job. pic.twitter.com/wODQdZBqAs

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) August 6, 2025

The other core issues under discussion are scheduling and wages not keeping up with inflation. F light attendants could walk off the job as soon as Aug. 16 at 12:01 a.m. with at least 72 hours’ notice provided, if their demands are not met.

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