ANA mulls rehiring high-skilled workers who recently left

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:05 JST, December 19, 2021

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is mulling the implementation of a system that would permit those who have left the company within the past five years to return, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The company has reduced wages by 30% to 40% due to poor business performance and many of the airliner’s high-skilled workers in their 30s and 40s have sought employment elsewhere as a result.

In anticipation of a recovery in travel demand, ANA plans to encourage such employees to return.

ANA is aiming to introduce the system next fiscal year after holding discussions with the labor union. For those intending to return, the company intends to take the skills and knowledge they acquired while employed elsewhere into high consideration. The details of the system, such as job titles and annual salaries, have yet to be established.

The airline might in future face a shortage of flight attendants and IT personnel needed for a mileage-related business plan that the company has focused on in recent years. Furthermore, ANA also aims to increase the number of cargo-related personnel, for which demand has grown rapidly amid the pandemic.

Shinya Katanozaka, president of ANA Holdings Inc., ANA’s parent company, said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun last month, “We would like to consider introducing a reinstatement system as well as measures to expand degree of freedom in selecting departments.”