Asiana Airlines (Seoul, Korea)
Beware of Asiana and hiring agency contracts:
Could not start a new thread titled Asiana Airlines, so tagged on here -
Asiana Airlines has been overly aggressive at docking pay for missed flights due to illness (no sick leave) or transportation problems after vacations – including docking the already scheduled successive and intervening days off. Put another way, they not only deduct for the lost flight time, but deduct the scheduled days off after the missed flight until the next flight flown. Contractual issues have been a problem with both Asiana and the airline service agencies. 6 Positive Space tickets on the Asiana system were part of the contract, but it turned out to be space available unless expat employees could compete with ALL Asiana employees on up to two seats per airplane a year in advance for reservations. That proved impossible, especially with flying schedules that often were unilaterally made and changed by Asiana. Parc Aviation and World Airline Services agencies have talked about resolving such issues, but nothing has ever been done.
From January 2006 until July 2007 I was an Asiana B-777 foreign Captain based in Seoul. Asiana improperly terminated my contract 7 months before I was to turn age 60, and incorrectly attributed the termination for a cured medical condition even though I was declared ready to return to work from a granted medical leave of absence. Asiana repeatedly asked about my expected return date and physical condition during this 6 week leave which was dutifully provided by me and my doctor. Only after I was medically cleared to return to duty did Asiana decide reinstatement was not worth the remaining time on my contract with an overdue 6 month recurrent training. The contractual 60 days notice of termination with pay was denied, as well as my request for transportation to collect belongings still in Seoul. I went on my own, and several middle management personnel apologized for the bad decision and treatment.
World Airline Services (W.A.S.) was my agent collecting monthly commissions, and they didn’t attempt to resolve this issue. W.A.S. also was 6 months late in sending contractually included medical insurance information after many requests both in 2006 and 2007. Contractually there was no deductible for such medical insurance, but in 2007 they unilaterally applied a $650 deductible. Beware of these pimp agencies once you are hired - they aren’t interested in you or your contract once they get on the commission bandwagon.
This isn’t sour grapes – I was not going to renew my contract even if age 60 were to be increased – enough of expat flying for me, although I left behind some good friends. It was no big deal leaving 7 months early, but thought this might help those looking at this job – caveat emptor.