Air Canada

’s contract offer to its 10,500 flight attendants includes payment for work done before the plane is in motion, a response to a major complaint by employees of the country’s biggest airline.

The airline and the union representing cabin crew

struck a tentative agreement

early Tuesday morning, ending a three-day strike that caused the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. Union members must still vote on the offer, which includes 60 minutes of pre-flight pay for crew on narrowbody planes and 70 minutes on widebody jets, a union official said by phone.

The pay for that work will start at 50 per cent of flight attendants’ hourly rate in year one of the contract, rising to 70 per cent by year four, said the official with the

Canadian Union of Public Employees.

An Air Canada flight attendant’s in-flight pay can be $63 per hour after a decade of service, or $41 an hour at its Rouge budget brand after fewer years, analysts at Jefferies said in a note published prior to the strike.

The new provisions represent a breakthrough for Air Canada’s flight staff. The union garnered much public sympathy during the dispute because it built a campaign, including television advertisements, to make people aware that they weren’t paid for all of their hours. On the picket lines, they chanted: “Hey hey, Rousseau — unpaid work has got to go” — a reference to chief executive Michael Rousseau.

To seal the agreement, Air Canada enriched its offer on pre-flight pay. Before, the airline said it was willing to pay for 45 minutes on narrowbody planes and 60 minutes for widebody aircraft at 50 per cent of workers’ usual hourly rate, said the union official, speaking on condition they not be identified speaking about matters that aren’t public.

“The new flight attendant contract could trigger a similar move at other Canadian airlines,” said Francois Duflot, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Not just on the monetary part of it, but also on the ground-pay part of the deal.”

Rival airline WestJet

’s agreement with cabin crew expires Dec. 31 and “I would suspect similar demands,” he said.

Air Canada declined to comment. Mark Nasr, its chief operations officer,

told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

that “ground pay is settled” in what he called an “industry-leading deal.”

Moody’s cut its rating outlook on Air Canada to stable from positive, saying the new agreement “will contribute to increasing wage costs for the company and be a headwind for margins.” The company’s debt is rated Ba2.

The Canadian government announced Monday that it would

launch an investigation into unpaid work

in the airline industry. Less than 12 hours later, the union and the airline reached their deal.

Duflot suggested Air Canada may be following moves at other airlines to widen the scope of flight attendant pay. In 2022,

Delta Air Lines Inc.

became the first U.S. carrier to pay its flight attendants during boarding time.

  • Air Canada to resume service after reaching agreement
  • Air Canada cancels more flights as ‘unlawful strike’ continues

Major U.S. airlines negotiated multiyear contracts with their crews over the past 18 months, and some attendants secured boarding pay in the new deals.

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

is still negotiating.

Now, “unions at some U.S. airlines may now look at Air Canada for their next move,” he said. “Unions always look at what is going on in their neighbouring countries.”

With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein

Bloomberg.com