Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today with us to answer our questions.
I want to take a moment off the top to acknowledge the work of screening officers and frontline airport workers all across the country, who are really bearing the brunt of the chaos at our airports and working under some exceptionally difficult conditions.
We've been told several times by the government that this is an international phenomenon, so it might be instructive to look at what other airports are doing.
I noted that Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands negotiated an agreement with airport workers that includes a raise over the busy summer months that's equivalent to Canadian $7.14 per hour. By contrast, in Canada we have CATSA creating something called the summer attendance incentive program, which pays $200 a week bonus to employees who don't take their holidays.
Here's the most alarming part. I have a memo here written by one of your contractors that describes the program to its workers. This memo states that workers who take time off because they are sick won't qualify for the bonus. This is essentially creating a financial incentive for employees to go to work sick during a pandemic. Does CATSA think that's appropriate?