QPC Briefing No 20 2025 - LH EA Update
Over the course of these negotiations, Qantas has repeatedly shifted the goal posts on what it deems to be “threshold” items. Instead of narrowing the gap, the Company continues to expand its list of immovable demands.
The sequence of “threshold” claims has grown steadily:
- Two-year wage freeze (Company wage policy) – demanded at a time of record profits and historically high inflation, after pilots helped carry the airline during COVID for little to no pay.
- Pay table restructure – penalising pilots who move between ranks and fleets, undermining long-established career pathways.
- Removal of first class duty travel – stripping away a long-standing entitlement without sufficient compensation.
- Trainer efficiencies – enabling the Company to increase training capacity and boost profitability, again, without sufficient corresponding benefits in over-all package value for line pilots.
- Qantas Group reserved seniority numbers – the latest “threshold” structural change, presented as a ‘must-have’ claim 18 months after negotiations had commenced. This claim has significant potential consequences for mainline pilots, promoting significant subsidiary growth and contains no detailed proposal to include benefit offsets for SH pilots, or allow SH pilots to vote.
Each time Qantas introduces a new demand, it is presented as even more important than the last, but in the end, all are insisted upon as required thresholds. This pattern makes it near impossible to progress genuine bargaining when these items fail to be sufficiently compensated for.
These shifting positions are not only unreasonable, but also frustrating. They mirror the Alan Joyce era’s hostile industrial tactics, despite public claims by the new CEO Vanessa Hudson that the culture has changed. As negotiations continue, things appear to only get further and further away from this purported rhetoric.
The Company’s approach appears to not be about partnership or balance; it is about strong-arming pilots into large structural concessions that deliver little or no gain in return.
The AFAP’s Position
Pilots are under no obligation to accept reforms—especially when those reforms deliver substantial gains to the Company at the direct expense of pilots. This round of EA negotiations is one of the first in many years where the balance finally tilts in favour of pilots, yet the Company appears unwilling to acknowledge that reality.
Your AFAP team has consistently advanced proposals that:
- Only recognise efficiency reforms where they are matched by fair compensation; and
- Establish firm guardrails to protect against unintended consequences.
By contrast, Qantas has disregarded a series of reasonable, good-faith claims made by AFAP to protect pilot welfare and career sustainability. These include:
- Additional pay table increments and sufficient pay rises - particularly for B and C scale Second Officers, with protections against promotional stagnation.
- Fatigue/Night credits for the A350 - recognising the established and new unique fatigue and lifestyle challenges present on the A350’s planned flying network.
- Sufficient BLH rotation frequency mitigators - ensuring fair workload distribution, offsetting some of the financial impact of excessive blank-line rotations and ensuring correct establishment numbers are planned for.
- Open time transparency – ensuring accountability and greater transparency in the allocation of flying.
- Leisure travel improvements – recognising service and acknowledging the importance of quality-of-life provisions.
These are not extravagant or unrealistic claims. They are designed to balance efficiency reforms with measures that protect pilots’ wellbeing and ensure Qantas remains a competitive and attractive employer.
Our Assessment
- The Company’s tactics demonstrate that the “reset” of industrial relations under new management is little more than a rebranding of the same adversarial approach pilots have endured for years.
- A sustainable agreement is still achievable, but only if Qantas stops moving the goal posts and acknowledges that real reform requires real value in return, and that multiple threshold wish-list items cannot realistically be achieved in one EA without compelling offsets.
- Until then, your AFAP negotiators see no basis for the pilots to accept the Company’s mounting threshold demands.
Next Steps
The AFAP has tabled multiple good-faith proposals and reached the limit of what can responsibly be offered within the structure Qantas itself has asked for. It is now the Company’s obligation to demonstrate good faith bargaining by identifying which of its so-called “threshold” items are genuinely critical, and by showing how it intends to properly offset the structural changes it seeks.
As Qantas continues to shift the goalposts, the AFAP has already planned the next steps in escalation. Your negotiating team is prepared to pursue the full range of industrial tools available to ensure pilots are properly recognised and valued.
A Final Note
Occasionally, we receive commentary from pilots offering alternative strategies or criticising certain aspects of the AFAP’s claims. While we welcome constructive engagement, it is important to emphasise that our approach is not based on individual ideas of our LH EA team members.
The AFAP’s negotiating position is built on comprehensive member survey data that reflects the priorities of our AFAP members. Every claim we pursue is tested against this data. In addition, we have extensive survey data from non-members, which we have cross-referenced against the member survey data. The results are virtually identical, giving us confidence that we are accurately representing the views of the majority of Qantas mainline pilots.
We understand that the slow pace of these negotiations can be frustrating. However, we will only provide updates when there are meaningful developments to report, rather than sending communications for the sake of it.
To further illustrate the prioritisation of the QPC’s workload, your QPC pilot representatives assisting the AFAP professional negotiating team, are volunteers. This means that our pilot team members continue to fly full rosters alongside their negotiation duties. Members can be assured that your negotiating team is fully focused on securing the best possible outcome, and we will only update you when there is genuine progress or a development that requires your attention.
Lastly, as with any large body of members, not every individual will agree with every position taken, but our responsibility is to the group as a whole. We are committed to achieving the best overall outcome for Qantas pilots and will continue to represent you with unity, strength, and transparency.
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback please contact your AFAP Qantas Pilot Council representatives at qpc@afap.org.au, or the AFAP legal and industrial team of Senior Legal/ Industrial Officer Pat Larkins (patrick@afap.org.au), Senior Industrial Officer Deanna Cain (deanna@afap.org.au) or Executive Director Simon Lutton (simon@afap.org.au).
Regards,
AFAP Qantas Pilot Council
Michael Egan – Chair
Mark Gilmour – Vice-Chair
Rob Close – Secretary
Michael Armessen – Committee Member
David LaPorte – Committee Member
Josh Chalmers – Committee Member