Korean Air, which has constantly been embroiled in controversies in recent months, again faces a lawsuit from its flight attendants, according to multiple local media outlets on Thursday.
Some of its flight attendants accused the three siblings of chief of Korean Air - Cho Hyun-ah, Cho Hyun-min, and Cho Won-tae - on the grounds that the company has forced attendants to sell duty-free on board and give disadvantages to employees based on the performance.
According to one employee who recently had an interview with a local media outlet CBS, the company set a sales target on board. If they are not able to reach the goal, they are given disadvantages in their promotion. This makes staffs constantly pay attention to the sales while serving clients on board.
There is "pre-order on board system" which allows clients to order goods on board en route to their destinations and get the duty-free during their return flights. During the process, the names of flight attendants are written on the purchase request and that greatly affect the evaluation of flight attendants.
"This intensifies competition among the employees. But even though we are good at sales, we rarely receive incentives. Instead, if we are not good at sales, we are not able to be promoted," according to the staff declining to be identifed,
As the sales performance are applied to 30 percent of performance assessment, flight attendants should more focus on the sales instead of their original job of serving passengers on board.
The pressure on sales also affect the safety of the employees. As they should stand for long to sell more duty free, some of them get injured by the cart which is not fixed due to air turbulence.
For their claims, Korean Air said, "We provided incentives for flight attendants who are good at sales but did not give disadvantages to the employees who were not good at sales."
Korean Air's being embroiled in the controversy is not the first time this year. Last month, the prosecution raided the headquarters of Korean Air and Hanjin Shipping on the grounds that a local lawmaker's family member was hired in the company in the U.S. with the help of Korean Air illegally.
The lawmaker Moon's brother-in-law found a job in the Bridge Warehouse with the help of Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho and received $740,000 for salary but did not work, according to multiple local media outlets.
Hanjin Group refuted the claim, saying that in a statement, "The company Moon's relative worked for is a separate corporate entity from Hanjin. Cho does not know anything about this."
The company's constantly being involved in scandals started from last December when Cho Hyun-ah, a former airline executive, made international headlines after she ordered a flight attendant off a taxing plane over how she was served some macadamia nuts.
Cho, who is the daughter of the airline's chairman, was sentenced to one year in jail for obstructing aviation safety following the incident New York's JFK Airport on 5 December.
On May, the court released her from jail, saying she did not violate aviation security law when she ordered the chief flight attendant off a 5 December flight, forcing it to return to the gate at John F Kennedy Airport in New York.
