Sunstate Pilot Council - Minutes August 2024
On Friday 23 August 2024 the Sunstate Pilot Council Committee met at the AFAP Brisbane Office. The Sunstate Pilot Council Committee is:
Jarrod Blaker (Chair and Rostering)
Anthony Berko (Vice-Chair)
Richard Copland (Secretary, Meals and Welfare)
Louise Pole (Meals & Annual Leave)
Dan Lyons (Rostering)
Bianca Salim (Rostering)
Russell Thompson
The Council was advised of, and accepted, the resignation of Thomas Dunphy from the Sunstate Pilot Council. The Council thanked Thomas for his time on the Committee. Chris Aikens from the AFAP was also present at the meeting. After lunch Jonathan Ioannou joined the meeting to provide responses to our various suggestions and questions.
AFAP Services
The Council discussed the ongoing influx of new pilots into Sunstate and how it was important for both the Council members and members generally to remind new pilots of the benefits of AFAP membership. Often pilots are unaware of the benefits ranging from the loss of licence cover of the Mutual Benefit Fund (MBF) to having confidential access to both pilot welfare officers (currently Richard Copland and Rod Millroy) and the Member Assistance Program (MAP, details at the bottom of this brief). In addition there was access to the 24 hour hotline for emergencies and of course ongoing advice and oversight of the Sunstate EA undertaken by the Council on behalf of members. The full list of services can be found via this link
https://www.afap.org.au/membership/services
Rostering
Jeppesson Rostering – It was reported to the Council
that further work was being done on the automated Jeppesson Rostering process that was designed to improve the quality of rosters.
The Company reported that the system was up and running in Eastern as it had delivered improvements to their bid success rate. It was noted that the request system within Sunstate differed (as it was based on equitable distribution rather than strict seniority). The net effect was that pilots in Sunstate enjoyed over a 90% success rate in bid success and any automated system had to ensure that such success rate was not diminished.
Further information was to be provided to the Council Reps as ongoing work was needed to not only ensure bid success but also EA compliance and non-EA topics that are monitored by the rostering reps when undertaking roster reviews. Ongoing engagement will take place and further report back to members will occur when information becomes available.
Operational Disruption - The Company confirmed that a recent incident whereby a pilot had been contacted prior to sign-on regarding an operational disruption should not occur again. It was agreed that such a disruption is only applied after sign-on as it specifically to address day of operation disruption only.
Flexible Work Arrangements – The Council rostering reps also confirmed that in relation to individual flexible work arrangements (that were often linked to elements of part time working) their main role was to ensure the ongoing and equitable workloads distribution was applied to all pilots. It was important to note that the ability to provide an FWA was solely in the hands of the company and that the reps only monitored the resultant issue of equity distribution.
Townsville Crew Swaps
The company also confirmed to the Council that recent occasions of having to unload passengers to facilitate crew swaps should not now occur. If faced though with such instances it was confirmed that the operating flight crew on the day should manage the incident as they see fit, including passenger removal if required. If members experience such events please advise the company and the Council Reps as soon as possible.
Establishment Numbers For EA Compliance
A report was provided by the company on the initiatives being undertaken to ensure progress was made, as per the EA, to reaching establishment numbers that enabled access to 10 days off per roster period.
While noting that all ranks and bases were currently having the 10th day bought back, the issue of the fleet transition was also going to temporarily impact the arrival and training of new starters in Sunstate. New LTI’s were being recruited and with external attrition recently having improved for the first time in a long time a small hold file of potential new starters was occurring.
In addition with the movement to lowering minimum entry requirements (to make them in line with other parts of the group) it was also reported that the company were during the second half of 2024 prioritising high experience FO’s. The company also confirmed that once the transition process had concluded that ground schools would be processing roughly 16 per ground school (where it would be 4 to 6 during the fleet transition).
The Council reminded the company that previous promises had been provided that actual establishment numbers required to achieve 10 days off per roster would be supplied to the Council during the life of the current EA, to ensure that progress was being made on this important topic.
Part Time & Annual Leave
The Council continued to discuss the ongoing confusion surrounding the AL processes for those pilots working part-time. While it was noted the company had confirmed that an AAB was to be issued in time for the next AL bidding process it was also felt that an explanatory document needed to be drafted by the company as early as possible to enable the Council to review to ensure that appropriate systems were in place. The company confirmed that such information would be forthcoming.
Meals & Accommodation
Cooma & Wagga meals - It was reported that there were ongoing issues with the correct number of meals being loaded at Cooma and Wagga, with often only one, rather than two meals being appropriately loaded (with lunch being omitted). The Council reminds members that if faced with this problem then a pilot was entitled to advise the ROC that the meal had not been loaded and that a full meal break was being taken to ensure sustenance was being taken. The company confirmed that should meals not be loaded then claims should be submitted through the normal process. It was also reported that ongoing work was being done to achieve a solution to this problem.
CBR Noise - Reports of noise issues arising from construction outside the Canberra accommodation were also being received. Members were advised to submit HIRO’s and/or fatigue reports if the noise was impacting appropriate rest.
Flight Pulse App
The Council discussed the ongoing necessity to ensure that should the Flightpulse App become operational that any data was only accessible to the operating crew and that it was fully compliant and referred to within the FOQA Deed.
It had recently transpired that non-operating observers had access to data and consequently the company had paused the operation of the App. The Council also wanted ongoing assurances that the data was not to be used for training purposes and likewise that the company were not seeking for ‘pilots to self-train’ outside the current training pathways.
This topic remains one the council will continue to oversee, noting of course that should the app become fully operational then disclosure of data will become a disciplinary matter for a pilot.
Out of Base Flying
It was noted that recent EOI’s had been circulated for volunteers to undertake out of base flying between R11 and R2 (up to 23rd March 2025) for blocks of 5 day trips, the company reported that the levels of interest had been high.
The Council raised the necessity for any process needed to be on a ‘squirrel cage seniority’ that ensured that work would be distributed equitably amongst all those who had volunteered. In addition safeguards needed to ensured that those remaining working out of their home base were not unduly impacted through having to cover the temporary loss of a pilot from the home base. The company confirmed that these two approaches were to used when distributing out of base work. It was also confirmed that out of base working could also include out of AOC working as well.
The Council also raised the possibility for those pilots undertaking such work being able to access moving from DHA to DHAA if they chose, especially as the increased flexibility was clearly assisting the operation of the two turboprop operations. The company confirmed they would review the request and get back to the Council.
Flight Deck Cleanliness
It was reported to the company that the unclean state of many flight decks had been raised and that the potential for this to be an OHS issue was down to the operating pilots believing that to be the case. If any pilot believed that workplace was unclean to the extent that it potentially was an OHS issue then the appropriate HIRO should be submitted.
If you have any questions regarding a Sunstate matter please contact a Sunstate Council Committee member or AFAP staff members Chris Aikens on
chris@afap.org.au or Simon Lutton on
simon@afap.org.au or (03) 9299 5737. The AFAP Member Assistance Program (MAP) can be contacted via Freecall 1300 307 912.
Regards,
Jarrod Blaker, Anthony Berko, Russell Thompson, Richard Copland, Dan Lyons, Louise Pole, and Bianca Salim
Sunstate Pilot Council Committee