WestJet halts bid to hire temporary foreign workers as pilots

WestJet has walked back its bid to put temporary foreign workers in the cockpit. In an email, spokeswoman Julia Kaiser confirmed that the airline halted its hunt for overseas recruits for regional subsidiary WestJet Encore due to "economic uncertainty." The federal government last month approved WestJet's application for pilot permits under the temporary foreign worker program, according to the company and the country's main pilot union. The Air Line Pilots Association opposed the move, which saw granted a request for about 60 permits for pilots from India and South Africa, according to court filings. The union asked a judge last month to quash the government's approval, filing an application in Federal Court to declare the decision invalid. The jobs minister failed to consult with the pilots association or the "appropriate regulatory bodies" before giving WestJet the green light on March 10, the union argued in its submission. Tim Perry, who heads the union's Canadian wing, argued that temporary flight crew from abroad would undermine union goals around wages and work conditions. "Your status in Canada is directly tied to your being a 'good employee' through the eyes of the employer," he said in an interview, pointing to federal program rules. They're not going to act in standing for elements of our collective agreements that we've already earned or, in the case of collective bargaining, changes to those collective agreements. This has nothing to do with the part that these pilots were born elsewhere," Perry added.<br/>