EA Bargaining Update
Last Thursday (27th June), your Pilot representatives, along with AFAP Industrial Officer James Mattner and TWU Industrial Officer Ed Nell met with the Company representatives Deanna King, Mark Quintano and Jill Hignett. A half day meeting was scheduled, in order to continue negotiations for a new Pilots' enterprise agreement (EA).
Overall, whilst your EA representatives (from both the AFAP and the TWU) thought that the tone of the discussions was somewhat less adversarial and slightly more constructive than the last meeting, the outcome of the meeting was still one of very little progress.
Disappointingly, again, the Company did not have a comprehensive response to a majority of our Log of Claim (LOC) items and intended to have the Pilot reps go through our position in more detail. When we indicated our frustration and displeasure at the continued merry-go-round of us talking and not getting any action or commitments from the company representatives, we were somewhat pleased when the Company reps said that they did in fact have a couple of items to share with us, which they had moved their position on. Unfortunately, in relation to most of those issues their position still does not align with our claim, and it was merely what has been presented to the QLD reps for their EA (and also not agreed up there). More detail on these items later.
In order to try and progress things as much as possible we did agree to again run through our LOC item position but with the express proviso of each side having specific and accountable action items to return to the next meeting with. Pleasingly this was undertaken by the Company reps, and at the end of the meeting the action items list was agreed to.
There continues to be strong opposition from the Company on a National Pilot EA however some small progress was made in getting the Company to agree to at least discuss the scope of the proposed Adelaide Pilots EA in terms of aircraft type. We are seeking scope protection so that if Alliance decides to operate aircraft of a larger capacity in the future such as Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, that there is wording protecting pilots from having to operate those aircraft at current E190 rates. The Company will consider our position.
After our enquiries earlier in the year, the Company voiced in the meeting a future desire to bring Bravo pilots across to Alliance Airlines in terms of employment entity coverage. (‘Bravo Airlines’ would cease to exist after this occurs). This would have no impact on terms and conditions as both existing Bravo and Alliance pilots are going to be covered by the proposed EA. The Company stated that the limitation to this occurring in the short term is one of system limitations due to Bravo employee numbers not being able to be transferred seamlessly while the Company is implementing new crewing and training management software systems. The likely timeframe for this to occur was stated as being late 2025.
While the Company is still wedded to the 8 RDO plus 2 Grey Day position (rather than our claim of 10 RDOs), they have amended the Grey Day rule-set for our consideration and also are looking at changing the definition of an RDO to be 36 hours in length, with 2 RDOs to be 60 hours. This time threshold for RDOs is what we have been seeking, specifically for weekends, but would be a welcome change for all RDOs, which it appears the Company is close to finalising their position on.
Sign-off and sign-on times around annual leave was also discussed and the proposal to remain in line with the existing Fokker agreement clause (sign off prior to 1400 before leave and sign on after 1200 after leave) has in principle agreement from the Company. Further discussions around guaranteed days off around annual leave are yet to be concluded. The Company advised that when the new crewing software goes ‘live’ later in the year a week of annual leave will be 7 x annual leave days rather than the 5 plus 2 RDOs currently rostered.
Unfortunately, overall, there is still a vast gulf between our respective positions on a number of “big ticket” LOC items that you all have clearly voiced as being important. Minimal to no progress was made on the following issues even after further discussion at this meeting - Roster Protection outside of 7 days prior, Part-time availability for lifestyle reasons, Paid parental leave, Sick leave provisions, Staff Travel or Salary items. The Company had agreed to explore the use of DTA/ODTA and the Pilot reps will be presenting a proposal on this prior to the next meeting.
While we continue to voice our frustrations with the slow progress in the negotiations, there are things that you and each individual line pilot can be doing to assist and support our fight to win you better terms and conditions of employment. These include:
- Know the existing agreement and your contract - if you haven’t looked at your current Fokker or Bravo contract for a while, please dig it up and be familiar with what IS and ISN’T in there! Knowledge is key when you need to know what you are entitled to and what you want in this future EA. There is continued anecdotal evidence of Alliance Operations ‘exploring’ the limits of the lack of rostering rules that we currently have.
- Continue talking to your colleagues and pilot reps about what you want to see in the EA and what your bottom line is. We, as Pilot Representatives, are your voice in the room when negotiating with the Company. We are only as good as the support and information we get from Adelaide pilots.
- Please if you haven’t already then look at joining either the AFAP or TWU. Fees are tax deductible and our solidarity through these organisations is key to the power that we hold throughout negotiations.
The next bargaining meeting is scheduled to be held on the 17th July.
For further information on any of the above, AFAP members should reach out to one of the Pilot reps:
- Chardon - 0427 878 172
- Grace - 0466 618 579
- Darren - 0423 480 288
- Jarrod - 0447 071 048
or, contact James Mattner on james@afap.org.au or phone 0477 001 817.