Reading between the lines, flight attendant scheduling is probably quite .. adversarial, as shift scheduling at restaurants can be. The employer would like employees to have the minimum information so they meekly accept the shifts they're given.
Violating "regulatory rules" should result in fines and the government coming down on you. I would think this is the worse outcome, but less likely than...
Violating "union contract negotiated rules" should result in grievances ending in legal action if the employer doesn't agree they broke the rules. This should be a lighter penalty but the union seems more likely to pursue the remedy than the government.
So which actually is it that the company considers worse?
I’m not suggesting they willfully violate the contract either. Many of the schedulers are simply ignorant of the nuances in the rules because they’re complex. They are just trying to get trips covered. When employees are armed with knowledge greater than the scheduler(tools such as this, or often just experience) you end up with phone arguments/discussions that cause delays and cancellations. The company would far rather that they keep moving the jets and settle grievances for the handful of people that catch issues after the fact.
This kind of old, hierarchical thinking from the 1950s needs to go away.
Yes, it does, but no, it won't.
Just as democracies must always be better armed and prepared than expansionist autocracies, or the autocracies will take over, people need to be better armed and prepared than those who want to exploit them, or they will get exploited.
Unfortunately, the exploiters often arrive better armed and prepared, and it is an uphill battle.
Often, the only winning move is to not play the game.
They've recently backed strikes and raised wages https://unitedafa.org/news/2022/1/21/solidarity-works-flight...
The rest is part of the contract - https://www.afacwa.org/flight_attendants_achieve_10_hours_re...
> Washington, D.C. (October 4, 2022) — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today finalized a rule requiring 10 hours minimum, non-reducible rest for Flight Attendants between duty days – finally implementing a 2018 law that will make aviation safer for over 100,000 Flight Attendants and the passengers in our care. The rule will increase the rest period to 10 irreducible hours when scheduled for a duty period of 14 hours or less. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, issued the following statement ...
What would one have in a contract to help this issue?
That said, it does not prevent all exploitation. IIRC, the FA's in this story have a union and a contract, yet this form of exploitative behavior is not prevented.
"14 CFR § 121.467 - Flight attendant duty period limitations and rest requirements: Domestic, flag, and supplemental operations."
This can get tricky when flying across time zones and date lines.
> Although the law was passed back in October 2018 and was meant to be implemented within 30 days, the Trump administration allegedly put the measure on the backburner and “on a regulatory road to kill it”.
> The previous administration initially blamed the delay on a massive backlog facing the FAA caused by a partial government shutdown and then the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737MAX.
Compare that to every FA knowing every single time there's a breach, being able to compare notes etc.