Pel-Air - Enterprise Agreement negotiations
The AFAP met with Pel-Air last Friday, 5 April 2024, to continue negotiations for your new enterprise agreement. Attending for the AFAP were Jason Newell (Industrial Officer) and Andrew Molnar (Legal Counsel).
Ordinarily, your pilot representatives (Zach Buckle and Gerald Taffs) would also be attending. This was not possible for this meeting and rather than delay the meeting, the AFAP attended on its own. Of course, this does not mean that any final agreement has been reached on a matter. All matters, in particular contentious matters, will always be finalised only after consultation with the pilot body and your representatives.
Attending for Pel-Air were Paula Tran (Human Resources Manager), Fred Collas (Chief Pilot), Eugene Lee (COO), Madeleine Ward (Base Manager) and Ugljesa Mihailovic (Base Manager).
The main topics discussed in this meeting were pilot contactability, bonding, termination of employment and transfers/assignments.
Contactability
The parties spent some time considering when pilots should be contactable, and how they should be contacted.
The parties agreed that:
- when a pilot was on duty or reserve, there was an obligation to be contactable; and
- when a pilot was not on duty or reserve, there was no obligation to be contactable.
This is uncontroversial.
The discussion mainly dealt with when a pilot could be contacted when not on duty or reserve, and how.
Pel-Air proposes that pilots to nominate if they do not wish to be contacted when not at work. There will be a list maintained of such pilots.
If pilots do not nominate this, and are content to be contacted outside of duty/reserve times, then they will be contacted using an identifiable telephone number so that pilots can choose to answer or not. There will be no obligation on a pilot to acknowledge or respond to such a call.
Different rules apply when a pilot is within the minimum rest period. In these circumstances, Pel-Air can contact the pilot passively (for example by email or text) within 2 hours of the next rostered sign-on time for the purposes of advising a change to a rostered flying duty. Again, there is no obligation for a pilot to respond to such contact, or to check whether such contact has been made.
Pel-Air reserves the right to always be able to contact a pilot at any time to avoid a disruption or cancellation of service. Again, there is no obligation to answer the call.
While the AFAP considers much of Pel-Air’s proposal reasonable, we would like further protections to ensure a pilot is not able to be excessively disturbed in their own time, and can appropriately disconnect from work. The AFAP proposes to revert to Pel-Air with a draft clause, to be drafted in consultation with your representatives, that reflects this basic right to disconnect.
Bonding
Pel-Air has proposed to adopt the provisions of the Air Pilots Award 2020 in relation to bonds, with following fixed limits:
- King Air B200/B300 - $20,000 over 2 years
- PC24 - $36,000 over 3 years
The only circumstances in which a bond can be recovered under the Air Pilots Award are if the pilot resigns or is terminated for serious misconduct.
The AFAP has proposed limiting the bond to:
- King Air B200/B300 - $15,000 over 2 years
- PC24 - $30,000 over 2 years
Pel-Air is considering the counter claim.
Termination of Employment
Pel-Air’s claim is that after probation, either the pilot or Pel-Air must give 8 weeks’ notice of termination of employment and that leave already awarded during a period of notice may be cancelled and the pilot recalled.
The is considerably more than that which the Air Pilots Award 2020 requires (which is 2 weeks in the first year of employment, and 4 weeks thereafter which must be provided by a pilot). The AFAP considers that 4 weeks is sufficient.
Pel-Air cited that more notice is preferable because of the time it takes to replace a pilot who is leaving.
The AFAP proposes a clause that provides that although 4 weeks is the amount of notice that must be provided by a pilot, where possible a greater amount is encouraged. The AFAP will draft a clause in consultation with your representatives and will forward it to Pel-Air for comment.
Transfers and Assignments
Pel-Air maintains that there is a difference between transfers under the Air Pilots Award 2020 and the system it utilises to have pilots work in a base other than their own. Pel-Air clearly explained its reasons for this view.
Pel-Air have undertaken to draft a clause that clearly explains when working in another base is a transfer and when it is not. Once the AFAP receives this draft clause, it will review it together with your representatives to ensure it provides appropriate protection to the pilots.
Rostering
Although not discussed in detail, given the importance of this topic, the AFAP discussed the best way to approach rostering. The parties have agreed to block out days in middle to late May in which the parties can properly negotiate rostering using full days, rather than 2 hours here and 2 hours there. This means that the remainder of your enterprise agreement can hopefully be substantially completed before then.
Matters Agreed
The following matters have been agreed (or substantially agreed):
- Coverage
- Duration of enterprise agreement (3 years)
- Use of the individual flexibility agreement model clause
- Obligation to keep duty and flight time records
- Cashing out of annual leave in accordance with the Air Pilots Award 2020
- Superannuation to be in accordance with the Air Pilots Award 2020 and legislation
- Accident pay
- Pilot indemnity
- Long service leave in accordance with each relevant State
- Community Service in accordance with the National Employment Standards
The next meeting is to be advised, and we expect it to be in approximately 2 weeks’ time. We will advise you as soon as we have a firm date.
If you have any questions at all, please contact your pilot representatives, Gerald Taffs and Zach Buckle. Alternatively you can always contact Jason Newell (jason@afap.org.au) and Andrew Molnar (andrew@afap.org.au) by email or by phone on (03) 9928 5737.
Your AFAP Industrial Team