RFDS Qld - Enterprise Agreement approval process
As you are aware, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) Limited Pilots Enterprise Agreement 2023 (EA) was voted up on 18 April 2024 by a majority of pilots who cast a valid vote.
The process now is that the EA will be sent to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for approval. This involves the Fair Work Commission comparing the EA with the Air Pilots Award 2020 (Award) to ensure that you are better off overall under the EA as compared to the Award.
The EA will commence operation 7 days after being approved by the FWC. After this time, your current enterprise agreement will terminate.
If you have a dispute under the current agreement, you should raise this now. For example, during the access period for the EA, the RFDS Qld stated the following:
If a whole roster period (28 days) is taken as personal leave, how many days of personal leave are taken from the pilot’s personal leave balance.
This question was not answered, and is a good one as there are inconsistencies with how it’s applied.
As previously advised, this is not an EB question as there is nothing in the proposed agreement which changes the current entitlements for personal leave. However, if a pilot was absent for an entire roster period, they would be taking 14 shifts as personal leave.
We understand that in this scenario (where a whole roster period is taken as personal leave) some pilots in the past have had 20 days deducted from their personal leave balance. On our reading of the RFDS Qld’s explanation, it should only be 14 days.
If you raise a dispute regarding a current entitlement, like the above, it should be done before the new EA commences operation (ie. 7 days after approval). Please consider whether you need to do this. If you do need to do it, raise the issue with a relevant supervisor or manager.
If it is a dispute about the personal leave as described above, quote the text from the RFDS Qld quoted above, list the relevant dates of leave you took and give the amount of personal leave that was deducted from your balance. You can copy in the AFAP (using the emails below) or you can talk to us first. You should get on to this sooner rather than later.
The AFAP thanks all the pilot bargaining representatives involved in these negotiations: James Bate and Leonard Nichols (AFAP bargaining representatives) together with Hayden Watson. They have done an outstanding job in negotiating increases to your terms and conditions into the EA. This EA will form a solid base from which to negotiate improvements in your next enterprise agreement.
We will keep you informed of the approval process as it occurs. If you have any questions about the approval process, or about any aspect of your current enterprise agreement or the EA, please contact James Mattner (
james@afap.org.au) or Andrew Molnar (
andrew@afap.org.au) by email or by calling (03) 9928 5737. Alternatively, please contact any of your bargaining representatives.
Your AFAP Industrial Team