Is Ten Hours Rest Enough for Flight Attendants? The Two Flight Attendant Unions Disagree.

Is Ten Hours Rest Enough for Flight Attendants? The Two Flight Attendant Unions Disagree.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2016/02/14/is-ten-hours-rest-enough-...
TRANSPORTATION 2/14/2016 @ 10:07AM 3,151 views
Is Ten Hours Rest Enough for Flight Attendants? The Two Flight Attendant Unions Disagree.
The nation’s two top flight attendant unions are divided on the value of pending legislation to increase the amount of required rest for flight attendants.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at United and 18 other airlines, is backing the legislation. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the 25,000 flight attendants at American, says it doesn’t go far enough.

Flight attendant rest time is addressed in an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration funding bill, which was approved Thursday by the House Transportation Committee. The amendment was offered Thursday by Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) and approved by a voice vote of the committee.

Specifically, the amendment requires a minimum of ten hours rest between flights, up from today’s minimum of eight hours rest. It states that a flight attendant scheduled to a duty period of 14 hours or less must be given a scheduled rest period of ten consecutive hours, defined as the time from gate arrival to gate departure.

The amendment also requires that airlines provide the FAA with a fatigue risk management plan: once the FAA approves the plan, violations will result in civil penalties.

AFA backs the amendment. “Proper rest is critical for flight attendants to do our work as aviation’s first responders,” said AFA President Sara Nelson, in a prepared statement. “We worked very hard to achieve this common sense regulation and we will continue to push until the minimum ten hour rest becomes law.”

With eight hours rest, measured from the time a flight arrives until the next flight departs, a flight attendant’s actual sleep time can be as low as four or five hours given the time consumed by deplaning, preflight preparation and passenger boarding, AFA said. The proposed amendment also defines rest as “gate to gate,” so the same limitations on sleep still apply.

While APFA doesn’t oppose the amendment, Julie Frederick, the union’s government affair representative, said the union’s contract at American already provides nearly all of the protections it offers.

“The amendment is designed to improvement conditions at regional carriers, and we support improvements for our regional brothers and sisters,” Frederick said. “But it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t do much for our members.”

At American, very few trips would get more rest as a result of the amendment, APFA said. In cases where rest periods are increased, it would be by just 20 minutes. None of American’s international or long-haul flying would be impacted.

APFA has sought legislation requiring an aviation rules committee (ARC)– composed of flight attendants, FAA officials, scientists and sleep experts and air carriers — that would write fatigue-avoidance regulations tailored to specific conditions such as ultra-long flights and multiple time zone changes. This is what pilots have.

Instead, the amendment establishes a fatigue risk management plan, which enables an airline to draw up a plan and send it to FAA for approval. “While we support a fatigue risk management plan going through the ARC process would mean flight attendants would have critical input,” Frederick said.

Many observers say the FAA reauthorization bill is not going to get very far.

The bill is best-known for a controversial amendment to privatize air traffic control, which is backed by most airlines but opposed by Delta. It does not allow the Department of Transportation to fully regulate lithium batteries as dangerous goods when shipped as cargo, which has prompted the powerful Air Line Pilots Association to express disappointment.

Also, the bill lacks Democratic support, and a question exists whether it will even reach the floor of the House, let alone the floor of the Senate.

Too bad, because diminishing the possibility of fatigue among flight attendants is a cause worth pursuing.

“To the extent we can highlight fatigue for transportation workers, that’s a good thing,” Frederick said. “We already know a lot about fatigue. We know that when you don’t have enough rest, it affects safety.”

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Members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA)applaud during a rally held on the steps of The Capitol May 22, 2001. Chris Kleponis. Bloomberg News.