EFA Update - FWC Applications
Further to recent updates, your EFA pilot reps met again with representatives from the other pilot unions on 28 October 2024. We are also meeting again this Monday 18 November 2024.
The main developments since our last update are that yesterday the AFAP made 2 formal applications to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) against EFA as follows:
- Form F10 – Application for the FWC to deal with a dispute in accordance with a dispute settlement procedure (copy here); and
- Form F32 – Application for a bargaining order (copy here).
The Form F10 is a dispute application and can only be submitted after the prior steps of the dispute settlement procedure have been completed. This is the reason we have not lodged it earlier. In this application we are disputing EFA’s refusal to top up the salaries under the EFA Agreement to the salaries provided in the Award.
The Form F32 is an application for a bargaining order and is in response to EFA’s refusal to commence bargaining before the nominal expiry date of the current agreement and not bargain jointly with all unions.
Due to the interrelated nature of the applications, we have requested that both applications be referred to the same Commission member. We expect that they will be listed for conference in the next two to three weeks.
If the matters are not resolved at the conference stage it is likely that any arbitration would be many months away. Qantas IR has also already flagged some technical and jurisdictional issues that they will likely raise. This is disappointing because it will only delay matters and continue to avoid addressing the real issues which we are hearing from all EFA pilots.
This whole situation is incredibly frustrating given it could have been (and still can be) simply resolved by EFA:
- Topping up the salaries in the Agreement to the salaries in the Award (the minimum salary that every start up and Award covered operator is required to pay its pilots flying the same aircraft as EFA) and backdating this to 1 July 2024; and
- Start meeting with us now to bargain for a new agreement.
We will keep you updated on progress with these two matters as it goes through the Fair Work Commission.
Survey
At our meeting this Monday (18 November 2024) we also intend to finalise a short survey to get your views and suggestions for a new enterprise agreement. This will inform our log of claims. We will also re-survey on whether pilots want us to move quickly to conducting a protected industrial action ballot and/or applying to terminate the current enterprise agreement. When we surveyed last time 80% supported taking both actions as soon as legally possible. Because of significant membership growth we believe it worthwhile to re-survey on this issue.
Finally, we are still working on a range of information and communications leading up to the expiry of the current EFA EA. This includes:
- comparison information on the Award versus the EFA EA;
- comparison information on the EFA EA versus other Pilot EAs; and
- Some general information on the bargaining process, your rights and options.
We are conscious of the need to get this information out quickly while not overloading pilots with information all at once, in a campaign that is likely to take some time.
By any assessment the current EFA agreement is seriously deficient. Getting a fair and reasonable replacement agreement will not be easy. With hard work, your support and unity we are however confident that a much better result than the last round of bargaining can be achieved.
If you have any questions on the above please contact us directly or Simon Lutton at the AFAP on (03) 9928 5737 or email simon@afap.org.au.
Yours sincerely
Liam Bottomley, Susha Semenikow and Dean McMahon
AFAP EFA Pilot Representatives