Air Canada announces reduce more than 5000 employees

Air Canada has announced to temporarily lay off more than 5,100 employees as it attempts to check the impact of the coronavirus pandemic,

Reuters reported that the union representing the Canadian airline’s flight attendants said has announced to temporarily lay off more than 5,100 employees.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said it was “deeply saddened” to know airline would temporarily lay off about 3,600 of its members immediately at Air Canada mainline and all 1,549 of its members at Air Canada Rouge.

CUPE, represents about 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, said layoffs effective until April 30 with immediate effect.

Reuters also learned from company airline initiated discussions with its unions to begin placing employees on temporary, off-duty status.

“Employees would be returned to active duty status when we ramp up our network schedule as conditions allow,” the company said in statement.

Earlier this week, Air Canada said it would gradually suspend the majority of its international and U.S. trans-border flights by March 31 in response to the coronavirus crisis.

On the other hand, Italy’s death toll from pandemic surpasses numbers from China as Beijing reports at least 228 new cases from abroad.

Arab media reported that total number of infections in Italy has also risen to more than 41,000, while cases in Germany, Iran and Spain rose to more than 15,000 each. Cases in the US also surged past 13,000, while the number of deaths hit 200, forcing the state of California to order a state-wide lockdown.

Furthermore Australia has regulated its social distancing rules to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus demanding indoor venues provide at least four square metres (43 square feet) of space per person.