Yesterday, we met with Skytraders at its Operations Road offices to continue negotiations for your enterprise agreement. Attending for the pilots were Louise Robertson, Victoria McFarlane, Rod Robertson and Andrew Molnar. Attending for Skytraders were Dan Burnaby, Derek Hayden, John McRae and Duncan Mackay. Also attending was Jorn Gronset as his own bargaining representative.
The meeting commenced with reviewing outstanding items other than rostering and remuneration. Further items have now been agreed in principle, including provisions relating to bonding and upper respiratory tract infection leave (URTI).
Set bond amounts have now been agreed, being $35,000 (over 3 years) for the Airbus A320 Family, $25,000 (over 2 years) for the B350 and $15,000 (over 2 years) for the C212. These amounts reduce pro rata during the life of the bond. Bonds will only be recoverable where a pilot resigns or has their employment terminated for serious misconduct. We will distribute the final clause once it has been drafted for you to review.
Pilots will receive 6 days of URTI per year, which will not accumulate each year. URTI leave will be provided in line with the Air Pilots Award 2020. This is in addition to your entitlement to personal leave.
The parties have clearly not agreed on 2 important clauses, the dispute resolution clause and the stand down without pay clause. These were discussed in length and have not been resolved.
In relation to the dispute resolution clause, Skytraders says that it wants to retain the ability to force a pilot to have to commence court proceedings. This means added expense to the pilot and/or their union, and Skytraders not having to seek leave to be represented in the proceedings. Skytraders would would rather this, than to submit to arbitration in the Fair Work Commission, and the way it must perform its functions as set out in section 577 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) which states:
The FWC must perform its functions and exercise its powers in a manner that:
- is fair and just; and
- is quick, informal and avoids unnecessary technicalities; and
- is open and transparent; and
- promotes harmonious and cooperative workplace relations.
The AFAP is at a loss to understand exactly what in section 577 of the FW Act is so objectionable to Skytraders. Whatis it that Skytraders wishes to avoid? The only reason that Skytraders has given is that it is concerned about “vexatious litigants”, a concern that remains by not allowing the Fair Work Commission to arbitrate disputes as of right. The Fair Work Commission would still have to deal with the matter, just not by arbitration. The AFAP cannot see any sensible rationale in Skytraders' approach to this issue.
In relation to the stand down clause, Skytraders wants to retain the ability to stand down pilots without pay if there is a “shortage, cessation, or stoppage of available work” for any reason. The AFAP notes that, on the one hand Skytraders wants this agreement to only apply to full time employees, yet on the other wants the ability to effectively treat them as casual staff by being able to not pay them when there is no work. This is unacceptable.
The AFAP has no objection to a stand down clause as set out in the FW Act (which would apply anyway if there was no stand down clause contained in the enterprise agreement), however stand down under the FW Act only applies where employees are taking industrial action, or for events for which the employer cannot reasonably be held responsible. It should not extend to a “shortage, cessation, or stoppage of available work” for any reason at all.
When asked what circumstances Skytraders considers would trigger this clause, 2 circumstances were mentioned. First, the grounding/unserviceability of an aircraft and second, a delay in contract completion. We do not think that, without more, either of these examples should result in pilots being stood down without pay.
The AFAP, on the basis of these 2 clauses alone, would not support an agreement put out by Skytraders for vote if Skytraders’ position is maintained.
The AFAP proposes to introduce these 2 issues, the dispute resolution clause and the stand down clause, to the Fair Work Commission as part of the section 240 conference we have requested for the rostering provisions.
Preliminary discussions were had regarding remuneration, and your pilot representatives will discuss with you the proposals put forward by Skytraders. Please let your pilot representatives know exactly how you feel about remuneration, so that we can inform Skytraders which proposals should be discussed further, and those which will clearly not be favoured by the pilot group when it comes to voting for your new enterprise agreement. Remuneration negotiations clearly remain in an embryonic stage.
We are waiting to hear back from the Fair Work Commission in relation to both a new listing for the 240 conference (which will now include in addition to rostering, the dispute resolution clause and the stand down clause), and directions/next steps on Skytrader's application to extend your Zombie agreement for a second time. We have made clear both to Skytraders and the Fair Work Commission that the AFAP maintains its opposition to the extension application being granted.
The next meeting with Skytraders is scheduled for Thursday next week in the afternoon, 25 July 2024.
If you have any questions in relation to the content of this briefing, or any other matter, please contact Andrew Molnar (
andrew@afap.org.au) or Captain Naomi Radke (
naomi@afap.org.au) or you can call us on (03) 9928 5737.
Your AFAP Industrial Team