Don’t burden already-fatigued cabin crew with pre-flight checks, says union

 Nufam says the tourism minister's suggestion for cabin crew to report early for pre-flight drug screening would punish the whole workforce.

Nufam said if an airline genuinely requires crew to report earlier for operational or safety reasons, the aviation industry must first address cabin crew fatigue. (Envato Elements pic)

PETALING JAYA:

A union representing airline cabin crew members has criticised tourism, arts and culture minister Tiong King Sing for suggesting that pilots and cabin crew report earlier for pre-flight checks, saying this would add a burden to an already fatigued workforce.

National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) said Tiong should realise that cabin crew already work under tremendous pressure in a demanding environment, with early-morning starts, late-night finishes, long duty periods, irregular schedules, disrupted sleep, and constantly changing flight rosters.

Any new policy would place an additional burden on every other employee in the aviation industry, not just cabin crew, it said.

“Adding a two-hour policy to conduct a pre-flight drug screening on the flight crew is purely inconsiderate, as it adds more mental pressure before a flight.

“Fatigue will also affect their alertness, concentration, reaction-time, decision-making and ability to respond effectively during an emergency on a flight,” the union’s secretariat said in a statement, adding that fatigue is not merely an employee welfare issue but also an aviation safety problem.

Nufam also asked who would bear the cost of those two additional working hours for the cabin crew staff. “Will the minister pressure the airlines and government to pay the crew more salary?”

It said if an airline genuinely requires crew to report earlier for operational or safety reasons, the aviation industry must first address cabin crew fatigue.

“Safety cannot be achieved by continuously squeezing more time from these frontliners,” it added.

Tiong had said that airlines could require flight crew to report for work one and-a-half to two hours before duty to be cleared in drug-screening before being allowed to work.

“The relevant professionals can decide on the type and scope of testing. What matters is having a more active and effective way to prevent such cases,” he said in response to the recent arrest of a second officer pilot in Indonesia for alleged drug smuggling.

‘Crew members need pre-flight rest’

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin Abdul Wahab said Tiong should know that every crew member, including pilots, must undergo pre-flight rest, which involves their minimum rest period or flight time limitation.

“Any such rest before and after flight must be taken in all respects of their safety as well as in relevance to the flight operations schedule, which reflects their reporting time before any departure.

“He (Tiong) must know the fact that this is also in compliance with the aviation rules,” he told FMT.

He also said that cabin crew members would feel a lot of stress about undergoing a pre-flight drug screening.

“That also depends on how they want to handle hundreds of crew at one time. It will cause delays in many flights if we are talking about pre-flight drug screening,” he added.

Ismail acknowledged a need for stringent checks at airports but said the recent smuggling cases were isolated ones and that airline workers should not be penalised for the actions of a single pilot.

“We cannot discount that there are bad apples, but we can’t take the entire tree down that bears the fruits. Airline crew members undergo rigorous safety and health screenings annually. It is in the policy already. So imposing an arrival two hours earlier for a pre-flight check does not change much,” he said.

The union called on the tourism, arts and culture ministry to engage directly with it before proposing anything beyond what is already in the guidelines prepared by the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia.

It said the guidelines cover various aspects of cabin crew’s daily tasks and labour welfare, including fatigue risk management, duty and reporting times, adequate rest periods, actual working hours, roster design, proper compensation for additional working time, and crew safety and well-being. - FMT