This week (Tuesday 29 April 2025) we held another all-day joint union bargaining meeting in Sydney with Express Freighters Australia (EFA) management.
Attending for EFA were Richard Hardonin (Head of Flying Operations and Chief Pilot, Qantas Freight), Kate Bennett (Senior Manager Base Operations, Qantas Freight), Riki Cannon (Head of Commercial, Qantas Freight), Alison Hamilton (Qantas HR), Jim Morton (Qantas IR), Karl Romberg-Yee (Qantas IR) and Tom O’Donnell (Qantas IR),
The pilot representatives and union employees attending for the EFA pilots were Simon Lutton (AFAP), Susha Semenikow, Dean McMahon, Ed Nell (TWU), Aaron Kirsh, Jane Cleary via Teams (AIPA), Maddy Vaz (AIPA), Geoff Thompson and Nick Swanson.
Prior to the meeting (Thursday 24 April) we provided the company with a detailed response document to the material they had presented at the previous meeting on 1 April 2025. Our document, provided on a without prejudice basis, challenged some of the company’s data and assumptions, outlined the difficulties they had created in the negotiation landscape before providing a detailed summary of the status of every claim in terms of the company response and our position to that response. While there was some agreement on certain points and only minimal work to achieve agreement on others, we remain apart on 73% of claims, including all of our major claims relating to remuneration, roster stability, days off and duty travel.
Following on from the previous meeting we also advised the company of the pilots we have designated to work separately with the relevant company representatives on the development of a roster manual. These pilots are Jeremy Tsunoda from the wide-body fleet and Susha Semenikow from the narrow-body fleet.
While some progress has been made, it remains glacial in speed. We went to great lengths to explain our frustration with the company and their refusal to even make an offer. The company continues to refuse to be pinned down on a figure or put forward a proposed package.
In summary they have indicated they have a preference for an increase in the base salary rather than additional allowances but have not detailed what that increased salary amount is. They have indicated that they accept that changes to days off would need to be agreed but will not specify what the number of days off above 8 in a roster could be or confirm the buffers around the days off. In relation to business class duty travel they are very quick to advise that this is not an area they are looking to expand even when we explain the fatigue mitigation benefits when the paxing is associated with late night operations.
Right now, the distance between the parties is very large. We have fully detailed each of our claims. The company has asserted these claims represent a large increase in cost coupled with a large decrease in pilot availability. The problem is they refuse to put forward a precise counter proposal so we cannot definitively identify the gap between the parties. It is like “wrestling with a cloud” and it appears to us they are deliberately stalling.
We are all very aware of the growing frustration within the pilot group with the lack of progress and share this frustration. We are also very conscious that the next Award adjustment which will put us even further behind the Award is due in the middle of the year.
We are committed to bargaining in good faith but if the company continues on its current path, we will certainly take all lawful and appropriate steps to expedite the bargaining process.
Your pilot reps are meeting again next week to review and discuss the current situation.
Further all-day negotiation meetings have been scheduled for 14 May 2025 in Sydney and 2 June 2025 in Melbourne. From our point of view these meetings will be pivotal in determining the course of bargaining.
We will keep you updated on developments.
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
Susha Semenikow and Dean McMahon
AFAP EFA Pilot Representatives