quote:
China crew cost $46,000 each: Air NZ
Air New Zealand yesterday defended the pay deal it gives its Shanghai-based flight attendants during an appearance before a parliamentary select committee.
Mr Fyfe said the total employment cost for the Shanghai-based crew was $46,000 each a year, and "we don't perceive that to be a low rate of pay".
That package compared with an equivalent total employment cost for the airline's NZ-based flight attendants of $58,000 a year.
The Chinese crew flew about 75 per cent of the hours that the NZ-based crew did, Mr Fyfe said, and part of the allowance regime was a payment per hour of flying.
"In China we pay the staff directly, but we pay the government a 46 per cent tax effectively for their social benefits and so on."
He said recent Herald reports about the issue had focused on a specific base salary rate which bore "no resemblance" to the total remuneration for those employees.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10501754