The employment contract lets the airline pay its Chinese stewards $3.25 an hour. Photo / Richard Robinson

The employment contract lets the airline pay its Chinese stewards $3.25 an hour. Photo / Richard Robinson

Air New Zealand's Shanghai-based flight attendants are paid a quarter the salary of their NZ colleagues - less than the legal minimum wage here.

The Chinese attendants - who work side-by-side with New Zealanders on flights between Auckland and Shanghai - are also paid only a third of the allowances given to their Kiwi counterparts while they are working away from home.

Six Chinese Air NZ flight attendants told the Weekend Herald there had been "growing unhappiness about money issues" among staff.

One described the situation as "staff being disgusted at being treated like monkeys and being paid peanuts".

She and the others, who have all asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, say there is increasing resentment over the pay gap between Chinese staff and their Kiwi counterparts.

A former China-based attendant, Crystal Zeng, said: "I remember feeling the pain when I see the others being able to go out to party, while we don't even have enough money for movies and McDonald's."

Air NZ, which is 76 per cent-owned by the Government, said last night that the Chinese crew were employed by a company in China, and it was unfair to compare the salaries.

NZ flight attendants have a starting base salary of at least $24,000 a year.

A source said crew also got $170 for each day they spent overseas, plus other flight allowances, which could add up to $15,000 a year.

The Chinese have an annual wage starting at $6240 and a daily away allowance of $55.

One Chinese air stewardess said her monthly base salary was $520 and she got an extra $4.30 for every hour of flight time. This totals much less than New Zealand's legal minimum wage of $11.25 an hour.

Air NZ said it did not have to pay the minimum wage because the staff were on secondment from a Chinese company, Fasco.

But each has a New Zealand work permit giving Air NZ as the employer.

"We were led to believe that we will be working for Air NZ, then after we are successful, they drop the bomb telling us we are to sign a contract with a Chinese company and will be employed under Chinese terms," one air stewardess said.

Another, a NZ resident who completed her education here and applied for the position in New Zealand, thought it was just "bad luck" that she had a Chinese passport. She said: "If I were Kiwi, I would have been paid a lot more for the same work I do."