Canada’s long-running “dirty secret” of unpaid airline work is back in the spotlight, as the federal government’s probe into flight attendant pay practices has wrapped up without the concrete crackdown many workers had hoped for. Flight attendants, their unions and a growing chorus of labour advocates say Ottawa’s response so far falls well short of what is needed to end widespread unpaid time in the cabin, intensifying pressure on the federal government to move beyond consultations and self-audits and finally legislate change.
A Probe That Raised Hopes, Then Stirred Anger
The federal investigation formally began on August 18, 2025, when Employment and Social Development Canada announced a probe into allegations that flight attendants in Canada’s federally regulated airline sector were working significant unpaid hours in potential violation of the Canada Labour Code. The Labour Program invited a limited group of stakeholders, including airlines and unions, to participate in virtual consultations and written submissions focused on wages, hours of work and whether existing practices met at least the minimum legal standards.
Over the following months, targeted consultations ran through mid-October 2025. The department circulated a detailed discussion paper outlining key questions on how flight attendants are paid, which duties are compensated, and how airlines track hours. Airlines, including Air Canada and its low-cost affiliate Air Canada Rouge, appeared before officials to defend their pay structures and argue that their compensation models remain compliant with federal labour law.
For many flight attendants, however, the process felt painfully familiar. This was not the first time the federal government had signaled concern about unpaid airline work, and promises of reviews and roundtables have circulated in Ottawa for years. While the launch of the probe was initially greeted as a long overdue step, expectations were high that it would lead swiftly to binding reforms rather than another report destined to gather dust.
Those expectations have now collided with reality. With the probe’s conclusion and only limited, procedural measures announced in response, workers’ advocates say the federal government is once again shying away from confronting some of the country’s most powerful carriers on a practice that flight attendants argue amounts to systemic wage theft.
What the Federal Probe Actually Found
Officials have not yet released a full “What We Heard” report on the probe, but the broad contours of the findings and next steps are coming into view. Employment and Social Development Canada has affirmed that the Canada Labour Code clearly requires federally regulated workers to be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked. The department has acknowledged that widespread allegations of unpaid or underpaid time for flight attendants are serious, and that they warrant ongoing scrutiny of industry practices.
At the same time, Ottawa has signaled that it is leaning heavily on continued monitoring and employer self-reporting rather than immediate regulatory overhaul. Among the steps touted by the federal government are targeted outreach, virtual roundtables with stakeholders, and the preparation of analytical summaries of input from unions and airlines. Officials have indicated that they will assess next steps only after a final “What We Heard” report is published.
That cautious stance has left a wide gulf between government reassurances and workers’ expectations. For flight attendants and their unions, the lived reality is that boarding, deplaning, ground safety checks and lengthy delays can all fall outside the narrow windows for which they are paid. The probe acknowledged these complaints, but so far it has not been paired with a clear enforcement regime that would obligate airlines to count this time as paid labour across the board.
Unions argue that without firm directives from Ottawa, voluntary compliance will do little to resolve a problem that is deeply embedded in airline scheduling and pay systems. They warn that a timid response now risks normalizing a model where highly trained safety professionals continue to spend dozens of hours each month at work without compensation.
Flight Attendants Say the System Is Built on Unpaid Time
Central to the controversy is how airlines define “paid time” versus time that is considered incidental, preparatory or part of unavoidable disruptions. Surveys by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents about 20,000 flight attendants across multiple carriers, have consistently shown that cabin crew work roughly 35 unpaid hours each month. That can amount to nearly an extra week of full-time work over the course of a typical scheduling block.
These unpaid hours are not abstract accounting quirks. Flight attendants describe a routine in which their pay often begins only when the aircraft door is closed, and stops the moment it opens at the gate. Tasks before and after those moments can include boarding passengers, helping those with mobility challenges, conducting pre-flight safety and equipment checks, preparing the galley, managing deplaning, and handling delays on the tarmac when the clock does not recognize the time as fully paid at their negotiated rate.
Beyond flight days, many crew members report that mandatory safety training, medical response refreshers and certification updates are not always compensated at their full hourly wage. For a workforce that is repeatedly reminded they are first and foremost safety professionals, being underpaid for safety-critical duties strikes many flight attendants as both unfair and dangerous. They argue that when the system undervalues safety work, it sends the wrong signal about its importance.
The cumulative effect is fatigue, financial strain and a sense that the sector is balancing its business model on the backs of workers. For younger attendants juggling rent, student debt and rising costs of living, 30 to 40 unpaid hours each month can mean the difference between staying in the profession and quitting entirely. For seasoned crew members, it increases burnout and erodes loyalty to employers and, increasingly, to the federal institutions that are supposed to protect them.
A Labour Flashpoint After Strikes and High-Profile Disputes
The government probe did not emerge in a vacuum. It was triggered and shaped by a series of high-profile labour clashes that made unpaid work impossible to ignore. In 2025, the dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants culminated in a strike that disrupted air travel across the country and drew national attention to cabin crew pay practices.
Strikers and union leaders repeatedly pointed to unpaid time as a central grievance, accusing the airline of forcing employees to donate hours each month just to keep operations running smoothly. As picket lines formed at major airports, passengers began hearing more directly about practices such as unpaid boarding and deplaning, as well as the unpaid portions of long duty days that stretch far beyond the hours counted in pay systems.
Even after a mediated deal brought that strike to an end and a new collective agreement was reached, the underlying issue did not disappear. Union officials framed the settlement as a partial step forward, but they emphasized that industry-wide change would require federal intervention. Without Ottawa drawing a clear line under what counts as paid work, they argued, airlines would continue to rely on a model that pushes the limits of the Labour Code while keeping overall wage costs down.
The strike also revealed a surge of public sympathy for flight attendants. Polling in 2025 suggested that an overwhelming majority of Canadians believed airline workers should be paid for all hours they spend on duty. That public mood is now an important backdrop to the current debate about whether the federal probe has produced enough concrete action, or whether it amounts to a missed opportunity to harness that sympathy into meaningful reform.
Unions, Allies and a Growing Political Push
In the wake of the probe’s conclusion, labour advocates are sharpening their criticism of Ottawa’s response. The Canadian Union of Public Employees has accused the federal government of failing to match words with deeds, arguing that the proposed reliance on airline self-audits of wage practices falls far short of what is required to tackle systemic unpaid work. For a sector dominated by a handful of large carriers, unions say self-policing is tantamount to asking companies to grade their own exams.
CUPE and allied labour organizations have stepped up campaigns on Parliament Hill and across the country, organizing rallies and media events designed to highlight both the scale of unpaid work and the political choices keeping it in place. They point to surveys showing that the public overwhelmingly opposes unpaid time in the airline sector, framing the issue as not only a labour dispute but a question of basic fairness that resonates far beyond airport gates.
This labour pressure is now intersecting with an emerging legislative push. A private member’s bill, Bill C-250, introduced by interim New Democratic Party leader Don Davies, would explicitly require that flight attendants be paid at their negotiated hourly rate for all hours they spend on duty. Supporters argue that such a measure would close loopholes in the Labour Code that have been exploited to carve large portions of the workday out of paid status.
For unions, Bill C-250 has become a rallying point and a litmus test for whether the federal government and opposition parties are serious about ending unpaid work. They portray the bill as a straightforward fix and accuse the government of hiding behind consultation processes instead of throwing its weight behind clear, enforceable rules. Whether the bill gains momentum in the coming months will be a key indicator of how much political will exists in Ottawa to confront the airlines.
How Airlines Are Responding to Mounting Scrutiny
Major Canadian carriers have responded to the federal probe and public criticism with a mix of defensive explanations and selective reforms. In their submissions to the Labour Program, Air Canada and its affiliate Air Canada Rouge presented detailed descriptions of their pay systems, insisting that their compensation models meet or exceed the standards set by the Canada Labour Code.
Air Canada has highlighted recent collective agreements that include wage increases, pension improvements and new pay premiums for specific duties, such as what the airline calls a “Ground and Cabin Security Premium” for certain types of work performed on the ground. Executives frame these changes as evidence that the company values its more than 10,000 flight attendants and is actively modernizing its compensation structure.
Airlines generally argue that the distinction between flight time and other duty periods has historical roots across the global industry, and that their pay packages account for both paid and unpaid portions of a duty day when viewed as a whole. They warn that sweeping legislative changes could raise operating costs, which might translate into higher ticket prices or reduced service on marginal routes, especially in a cost-sensitive, post-pandemic travel market.
Yet these assurances have done little to defuse anger among flight attendants. Many crew members see tweaks and premiums as partial fixes that still leave core issues intact, especially when the overall framework continues to treat critical safety duties as outside the fully compensated workday. The reliance on self-audits and internal compliance reviews, rather than robust external enforcement, has also raised skepticism about how far airlines are truly prepared to go without firmer direction from Ottawa.
Why This Matters for Passengers and the Future of Canadian Aviation
For travelers, the debate over unpaid airline work might seem, at first glance, like a fight about paycheques behind the galley curtain. In reality, the outcome has far-reaching implications for safety, service quality and the long-term health of Canada’s aviation sector. Flight attendants are the first line of defense in in-flight emergencies and the primary point of contact for passengers with special needs or medical conditions. When the system relies on large amounts of unpaid work, it risks deepening fatigue and turnover among precisely those workers whom passengers depend on in a crisis.
As airlines rebuild after the pandemic, they are also grappling with persistent staffing challenges. If unpaid time continues to be baked into the job, the profession may become less attractive to new recruits, especially in an era of rising housing costs and stagnant wages across many service sectors. That could leave carriers struggling to maintain fully staffed flights, leading to more cancellations, delays and reduced route networks, all of which directly affect passengers.
There is also a reputational dimension. Canada promotes itself as a country that values fair work and strong labour protections, and its flagship airlines trade on that image when marketing to both domestic and international travelers. Continued controversy over wage practices that unions call “corporate wage theft” threatens to undercut those narratives, especially as more passengers become aware of how much uncompensated time goes into each flight.
For frequent flyers who value reliable, safe and humane air travel, the stakes in this debate are high. A sustainable, professionally staffed cabin crew workforce is integral to a functioning aviation system. The resolution of the unpaid work fight will help determine whether Canada’s airlines can deliver that stability over the long term, or whether they will face a future of chronic labour unrest and reputational risk.
Will Ottawa Finally Step In, or Miss Its Moment?
The question looming over the industry now is whether the federal government will match the urgency felt by flight attendants, or whether it will allow the probe’s findings to fade into the background amid other political priorities. The consultation phase is over, but the substance of Ottawa’s response remains in flux. Officials have promised a “What We Heard” report and pledged to determine appropriate action afterwards, yet there is no firm timeline or clear commitment to legislative change.
For unions and their allies, patience is wearing thin. They interpret the government’s reliance on self-audits and incremental monitoring as a sign that Ottawa is still reluctant to impose hard rules on powerful airlines. Labour leaders are increasingly framing the issue as a moral test for federal politicians, arguing that no worker in Canada should have to fight for the basic right to be paid for all the time they are on duty.
Parliament now sits at a crossroads. It can treat the completion of the probe as an endpoint and leave enforcement largely in the hands of employers, or it can seize the moment to clarify the law through measures such as Bill C-250 and stronger federal oversight. The choice will reverberate through the cabins of Canadian airlines and across an electorate that has shown little appetite for unpaid work in any sector, let alone one as visible and safety-critical as aviation.
As travelers head to airports in the months ahead, boarding planes staffed by crews who may still be logging unpaid hours, the outcome of this policy battle remains uncertain. What is clear is that flight attendants have transformed a once-hidden practice into a national flashpoint. Whether Ottawa responds with decisive action or cautious incrementalism will determine if Canada’s airline workers finally see their unpaid hours grounded for good, or if the country’s skies remain, for many of them, a workplace where too much of their time is still off the clock.