06 - Is Your Team Doing Unpaid Work? Lessons from the Air Canada Strike
If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard that more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), went on strike as part of an ongoing labour dispute.
You may have been one of the estimated 500,000 travellers impacted by the flight cancellations. I certainly was! I was visiting California when the strike started and had to fly with a different airline to get back home to Vancouver after my Air Canada flight was cancelled.
Most of us watched the strike unfold, thinking about delays and travel headaches. But there’s a bigger takeaway: the business lesson behind it.
Regardless of what stage your business is at, there’s value in pondering the important business lesson here. The Air Canada strike wasn’t just about flights being cancelled, it was about unpaid time.
Flight attendants raised a critical issue regarding “ground pay.” A large part of their responsibilities pre-takeoff (boarding, safety checks, and prep) and after landing (monitoring disembark) weren’t counted as “on the clock.” In total, they estimate this added up to more than 35 hours of unpaid work each month.
For business owners, the lesson is simple but powerful: unpaid work hours can slip through the cracks, but ignoring them can create serious problems for your team, your bottom line, and your contracts.
What Happened with Air Canada
In August 2025, Air Canada flight attendants went on strike over their working conditions and pay.
The key issue? Unpaid time.
Flight attendants were not compensated for work they did when a plane was not in the air. While passengers were boarding and attendants were carrying out essential safety duties, the clock wasn’t ticking on their pay. Multiply that across shifts, and employees were effectively working an entire extra week each month without compensation.
This wasn’t just an HR or payroll problem. It was a contract problem, because their contract didn’t properly account for the realities of the work. In this case, the contact is a collective bargaining agreement through their union, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The Business Lesson: Define “On the Clock” Clearly
Even if you’re not running an airline, this issue might be something you need to consider. In many industries, unpaid work sneaks in through:
Setup before a shift or client meeting
Wrap-up or cleanup after hours
Responding to emails or calls outside official work time
Admin tasks that support the “main” work
If your contracts don’t clearly define what counts as paid time, your team may be putting in work that isn’t being recognized. Over time, unpaid hours can damage trust, morale, and even lead to legal disputes.
Why This Is a Contract Issue
Contracts aren’t just formalities. They’re where expectations become enforceable.
When a contract doesn’t align with the way work actually happens, the result is frustration at best, and conflict at worst. In Air Canada’s case, outdated terms meant employees and management had very different understandings of what “work time” meant.
Clear contracts:
Spell out what tasks are considered “on the clock.”
Match reality, not just the tidy version of work on paper.
Prevent disputes by setting expectations early.
What Businesses Can Do Now
If you’re leading a team, now is the time to take a closer look. Ask yourself:
Audit your workflows. Where might hidden work hours be happening?
Benchmark your industry. What’s considered standard among your peers?
Review your contracts. Do they reflect real responsibilities, or just an idealized version?
Seek advice if needed. A contract review today can save you bigger problems tomorrow.
Final Takeaway
The Air Canada strike is a wake-up call: unpaid work hours add up, and leaving them unaddressed can cost you more than money.
By making sure your contracts reflect the realities of the work, you not only protect your business, you show your team that their time, energy, and effort are valued.
When was the last time you reviewed your contracts through this lens?
Need help? Set up a Legal Clarity Call today to get started.
