EGAS calls on administrative staff to stand in for protesting workers

長榮航勤呼籲行政人員加入抗議行列

EGAS chairman and general manager both handle luggage, flight times return to normal


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — EVA Air flight delays since Sunday (Jan. 1) due to a walk-out protest staged by employees of a sister company providing ground services have improved since 9 a.m. on Monday after EGAS dispatched more manpower, including the company’s chairman and general manager, to support the airport ground services.

Over 150 Evergreen Airline Services Corp. (EGAS) employees spontaneously took New Year’s Day off in protest, resulting in 79 delays of many EVA Air flights as of 7 p.m., according to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). The average delay of outbound passenger planes was 124 minutes, and the average delay of inbound passenger planes was 119 minutes.

The walk-out stems from a year-end bonus dispute within the company, which provides airport ground handling, laundry, and cleaning services. EGAS employees are dissatisfied that their year-end bonus is one forty-fifth of that handed out by other companies in the Evergreen Group, CNA reported.

EGAS' employees will receive only one month's salary as their year-end bonuses. However, Evergreen Marine Corp. will give out year-end bonuses to its employees equivalent to 45 months’ salary, and EVA Airways Corp. will pay up to an extra three months' salary to its staff as their year-end bonuses, per CNA.

Some flights were still delayed on Monday morning, with an average delay time of 30 minutes, but delays decreased after EGAS called on its administrative staff to support the ground services at the airport. EGAS chairman and general manager were both busy handling luggage at Taoyuan International Airport on Monday.

According to Taoyuan International Airport Corp. information, some EVA Air late-night flights on Sunday were delayed until Monday morning, including flights to San Francisco, Vienna, Seattle, Paris, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. The departure times for the Paris and Los Angeles flights were delayed by more than an hour.

On Monday morning, departure times for flights to Cebu and Ho Chi Minh were delayed by 105 minutes and 103 minutes, respectively. Others, including flights to Incheon, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong, were delayed up to 64 minutes.

EVA Air’s early morning inbound flights were also partially delayed. Among them, flights from Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago were delayed up to 96 minutes, and others, including flights from Seattle, Milan, Fukuoka, and Osaka, were delayed up to 27 minutes.

EVA Air flights after 9:00 a.m. were all on time, per CNA.