The AFAP will be in Darwin to meet with Airnorth pilots on Sunday, 16 July 2023
We will be there to talk about the letter you have received from Airnorth regarding the automatic termination of your enterprise agreement.
The automatic termination of your enterprise agreement is because of recent amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). One aspect of the amendments means that very old enterprise agreements (or zombie agreements, which are essentially agreements made prior to 2010) will automatically terminate (or sunset) on 7 December 2023, unless they are extended by applying to the Fair Work Commission. The amendments also provide that employers have to inform each employee of the impending termination by 7 June 2023, hence why Airnorth sent the letter to you. The letter sent to you is in the correct form and was required to be sent to you by law.
There are several responses to the impending termination that are available to you. First, you could fall back on the Air Pilots Award 2020. Second, an application can be made to extend your current agreement (although we think it unlikely that such an extension would be granted). Third, a replacement enterprise agreement could be negotiated.
The AFAP will be in Darwin on Sunday, 16 July 2023 in the afternoon to discuss the above with any Airnorth pilots who would like to attend. We will have a small conference room in which to meet - and will confirm the location closer to the time. It will definitely be in or near the Darwin CBD. Andrew Molnar (Legal Counsel of the AFAP) and Captain Marcus Diamond (Manager of Safety and Technical at the AFAP, and ex-Airnorth pilot from the 90s) will be attending.
During this meeting, we would like to explain further how you might approach the options available to you, what a new agreement might look like, and what the Air Pilots Award 2020 contains.
The current industrial environment provides excellent opportunities for Airnorth pilots to finally get a new enterprise agreement that addresses all significant areas - including remuneration, rostering and fatigue.
We hope you are able to make it, and please extend this invitation to any non-AFAP pilots at Air North who might be interested.
Please contact
andrew@afap.org.au or
marcus@afap.org.au, or call us on (03) 9928 5737, if you have any questions. Let us know if you will be coming. There will be, of course, the usual (and obligatory) AFAP sponsored beers afterwards.
We hope to see you on Sunday, 16 July 2023 in the afternoon.
Regards
AFAP Industrial/Safety & Technical