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Finnair’s said the outsourcing agreement was part of a cost-saving programme. Photo: SCMP Pictures

80 Finnair cabin crew recruited in Hong Kong told to ‘look for new jobs’

A group of 80 Hongkongers recruited as flight attendants for Finnair have been told by a recruitment agency to “look for new jobs” before they even start working for the airline.

A group of 80 Hongkongers recruited as flight attendants for Finnair have been told by a recruitment agency to “look for new jobs” before they even start working for the airline.

One woman, who asked not to be named, said she was hired by OSM Aviation in October to become a flight attendant for Finland’s national airline.

The group were recruited after Finnair and OSM Aviation signed an agreement on outsourcing of cabin services on Finnair’s routes to Hong Kong and Singapore.

The woman said the group were then sent to the Finnair Flight Academy in the capital Helsinki for one and a half months’ training.

They were each paid allowances of HK$17,000 for the training, but have not been paid since returning to Hong Kong.

The woman said OSM originally told them they could start working in mid-January. But in a meeting last Thursday, they were told that they might want to look for new jobs.

“There was no explanation why we needed to look for new jobs,” she said.

But she believed it might be due to opposition from Finnair’s union against hiring Hong Kong cabin crew.

“It is understandable for their union to oppose hiring people from outside, but why is this agency recruiting?” she said.

She said the salary for the Hong Kong crew is only about HK$10,000 a month. If the allowances are included, the crew can make about HK$14,000 a month, which she said is several times less than what Finnish crew are paid.

OSM Aviation said in a statement that the company has contacted the Employment and Economic Development Office in Finland to get the Hong Kong crew their workers residence permits.

The company has still not received the permits but is confident they will be received “in the coming weeks”.

“Due to the unforeseen long waiting time OSM Aviation announced that the employees were allowed to take another job during the grace period,” it said.

The intention is not that “the cabin crew should look for other jobs because they do not have a job, but rather to imply that they are allowed to work, until we have an approval of the workers residence permit”.

But the affected woman said she has already lost faith in the company and several people have already resigned.

Finnair’s director of media relations Päivyt Tallqvist said the outsourcing agreement was part of a cost-saving programme.

“We have said that the first outsourcing is planned to be initiated during the first quarter of 2015, and are currently preparing for that,” she said.

She also confirmed that OSM Aviation had not yet received the permits from the Finnish authorities, but they were expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

“We are of course very sorry for the uncertainty that this long process with the permits is causing the cabin attendants,” she said.

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