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Comment by mehrdadn | Hacker News Reader

What is the norm in the industry? Is it different in Europe and the US? And between pilots and flight attendants? I hear in the US flight attendants are only paid when they're in the air (edit: or when the door is closed? or something along these lines), which seems unreasonable on its own, but given that it's the norm in the industry it would also seem extreme to go on a strike for that.

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> ... but given that it's the norm in the industry it would also seem extreme to go on a strike for that.

I'm not sure I understand this sentence - changing the norms of industries is what mass strikes are good for. Strikes are most effective when bad practices are so widespread that job market itself can't fix them anymore.

I've had neighbors who are pilots (and 1 was a backup pilot who was always on call when someone couldn't show up).

They've explained that your hours count ONLY when the plane has closed the door and backed away from the gate. Then you are officially being paid for your time.

This explains the horror stories of "stuck on the runway". It's usually issues with weather/equipment/airport, etc. and it's not in the crew's best interest to just stay at the gate until the issue is resolved. If you're at the gate, the crew is not being paid.

I don't work in the industry, so I can't say for certain, but I at least know that SAS flight attendants in Norway get an on-call rate for being on standby. I'd be rather surprised if pilots didn't get the same.

I believe Ryanair technically employees people out of countries with very low wages and worker protection laws (Ireland, for example), which allows them to skirt some laws that would otherwise apply to them.

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