I was also working in China Airlines for a few years as an A330 Captain, based in Taipei, Taiwan. This is what I experienced when I was there.
@Cloudtopper, no problem with the sims, but thanks for checking....
The actual terms and conditions of your employment are different to what is stated in the letter of offer or even the recruiter for that matter. The letter of offer essentially says what you will earn and in what capacity, that’s it. On arrival, first day of duty, you sign the employment contract, then they will issue you a bond which you need to sign and pay several thousand USD’s up front ($9000 or $13000 depending if you negotiate the amount). Failure to do so, will null and void your contract. Nowhere was ANY information relating to a bond or advise about paying a bond. Especially coming with several thousand hours on type. This bond only applied to certain people. Just refer to what the other guys said. I was told by the Pilot Recruitment Manager, and I quote, “We don’t bond pilots from reputable airlines”. First taste of discrimination and a violation of their own Labour Laws relating to full disclosure of one’s employment terms.
Astronaut simulator training..pff.. who we kidding, I mean checking was a challenge. As the other guys have said, there is no training, English levels are rubbish and ego to competence ratio is askew. With the occasional shouting, although that was soon stopped when they were advised to refraine from doing that, they like to prey on the weak and the strong just have an attitude problem in their eyes. Basic Airbus concepts where unknown and grading heavily on opinion was standard. When you asked them to show you what or where it was, genuinely asking for the information, not being condescending, they would lose their face, go all quiet and just ignore you. Even if you asked via an email to the instructor directly, no reply. Line training, ETOPs, one of the astronaut instructors said, and I quote, ‘You foreigners use China Airlines as a training ground, and then leave’. I found that quite funny and puzzling. Welcome to CAL.
Training went for 3 months to the day almost and you are paid a ‘training salary’ which is taxed. This salary works out to be what Lokomoko said…Also, not disclosed prior to joing.
Line flying was challenging, you were not liked, not welcomed and it was not a healthy place to work. The technical log books were a mess, full of ‘VOID’ lines and signatures, falsifying Autoland entries to applying wrong MEL’s and not complying with ‘M’ procedures. I personally reported ‘Aileron Flutter’ as I experienced this in one of the A330’s. This aircraft flew for over a month before they changed the hydraulic jack. Just to name a few.
There were two ‘LINE’ groups (Line is an app they use for comms within the company for line pilots and management staff.) One group ‘Expat Pilots’ the other was a ‘local’ group. Full of union pilots with a racial disposition. Segregation was standard and essentially encouraged. Slander, racial disrespect, condescending remarks and finger pointing was a daily practice amongst the local pilot body, aimed directly at the expat pilot body. Accusations about leaving the cockpit dirty, foreign pilots do not plug in the headset after using their personal one, rumours about our salary to the days off we get. Yet arriving to an aircraft from a layover to find it still in the after landing configuration, spoilers still extended, radar and Xponder on and full cups of last night’s water and coffee sitting on top of the O2 mask lid. The Chief Pilot at the time would have FOs report to him about the expat Captains, in essence, a secret line check with a full report to the fleet management. When confronted, his face went bright red. Reporting expats was an SOP to them. The flying standards of a majority of the first officers was below standard and taking control was common. During the first year I was there, they had 2 runway excursions, 1 B777 and the other was a B744, and a tail strike on an A333 during command line training, when the IP took control, after the aircraft had landed and reverse thrust was deployed, then applied TOGA and took off, more concerned about triggering a FOQA event for a possible long landing, and damaging the pressure bulkhead in the process.
Changing roster assignments and confirming them without your knowledge. Blaming you for a ‘no show’ when in fact you never confirmed a duty change, and have the evidence to back your claim. This happened to a few guys including me. The excuse was that the cabin crew rostering department changed your schedule, because that makes a lot of sense. Very interesting, however we will still keep that on your file.
First Officer complained for 2 ½ hours on a flight about foreigner salary, days off, overall simulator treatment, using the words, ‘I don’t want to fly with you foreigners, I want to fly with my own people, you come here and take our jobs, to name a few. When he was advised that he was to be offloaded and a call to the fleet office will occur, this 40-year-old ex-military pilot started to cry. Quality.
Corporate bullying was a common place, not paying your salary although giving you payslips, stealing your bond money and then putting it back into your account, also happened.
It was just an amazing and disappointing experience of how a race of people can be so nasty. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, this sorry company will have another hull loss, not a matter of if, but when.
As the guys have said, YOU have been warned.