NJS – AFAP Council Meeting – 29th April 2025
On the 29th of April the NJS AFAP Council met at the AFAP Brisbane office along with Chris Aikens (AFAP Senior Industrial Officer) for our quarterly council meeting. Tony Macdonald (Head of Flight Operations), Tiana Stevens (BNE Base Manager) and Ian Verner (Senior Manager Line Operations) joined us for two hours in the afternoon.
In the weeks leading into the meeting we had discussed the need to conduct a survey of our members to gauge focus areas that crew want us to address during EBA negotiations (commencing in October). We want to include other unions in this information gathering and are looking to combine our collective efforts to hopefully deliver a joint log of claims to the company. We feel this will provide an environment to leverage the most clout heading into the bargaining process. Following our meeting we had a video hook up with other unions and it was agreed that we need to work together. We should have this crew survey out by mid-May.
Following is a run down on discussions points we raised with the company.
We asked the company whether they are to provide the workforce with a brief detailing anticipated aircraft and crew utilization as operation ramp up over the next few years. We feel this is essential for crew to know going into negotiations, otherwise we risk overlooking important protections and penalties that could be applied in drafting the next EBA.
The A220 Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) program deed is yet to be promulgated. It is a document that lays out rules and procedures for the handling of flight data and the protection of crew. The company confirms that the document is currently in draft form at present and will shortly be provided to unions for their input prior to being signed off.
The company confirmed that they are not pursuing any form of commuting rosters as they find them unworkable, particularly with the limited flying we’re currently doing. We did ask whether the company could investigate the availability of a ‘commuter card’ that can allow crew access to lounges when commuting using leisure travel. This apparently exists in other Group AOCs. The card has some cost to the crewmember.
As most of you would know, automated allowances during the two week roster pay period only populate in the program sometime late on the Monday proceeding the pay Thursday. If allowances are missing, even if the crewmember submits a claim immediately, it will only make the following pay run. This was again raised with the company as it is clearly a very poor feature of our crew management tool. They stated that this is still as good as or better than the previous system under Crewnet. Perhaps near enough is good enough. We’ll continue to press NJS to improve this frustrating lack of functionality with iFlight.
We again raised with the company that accommodation during training when more than three night away should be of an apartment style and not simply in a regular hotel room. This has since been tested (following the meeting) and a member was provided with an apartment in Mooney Ponds (like training captains are given when away for extended tours). We would like crew to raise this issue directly with their base managers should they be rostered more than three nights in the same location and would like to have this accommodation instead of the current Hyatt Essendon Fields.
Members have raised questions relating to the applicability of DCAs when on multiple reserves. The problem occurring is that the company is not paying the DCA when on days two or three of multiple reserves, that the start time for a proposed duty is before the published reserve period. We argued with the company that this constitutes a DCA for each day and that the company’s interpretation of this is incorrect. Management will look into this and report back. If you find yourself in this situation, please ensure that you continue to submit DCA claims. This is one more situation that the company is taking advantage of crews’ flexibility.
The Council reported to management that it appeared crews had had a marked improvement in window and aisle seat allocations. Please however continue to report all instances if given middle seats for your paxing flights. Furthermore the Council continues to campaign for improvements in the boarding process for NJS duty travelers, hopefully there will a positive response in the near future.
New ports are going to start being added to our network. Alice Springs & Hamilton Island in October, Mackay in December, Cairns and Townsville in February and March 2026 respectively. Sunshine Coast will likely have a fairly high frequency and be introduced in the northern summer 2026 schedule. We look like we’re going to start flying longer sectors whilst reducing the shorter ones (ie: LST) to improve aircraft hours utilization. Trans-Tasman, Norfolk Island and the belated Singapore run are also on the radar.
We’ll have eleven airframes by the end of 2025 and it looks like the company may attempt to receive an additional two or three airframes over and above their previewed number in 2026.
Four command upgrades are apparently about to commence in early July, for our most senior qualifying first officers. Since the meeting we've been advised that the intention is for a further 12 command upgrades to be completed prior to end of year, and in addition the company will be seeking 40 direct entry First Officers. NJS wants to run their first external recruit A220 course (ten candidates) in July, with employment assessments for this course to be completed in May.
Although the company has over thirty training captains now they want to train up another ten. These will come from suitably qualified and soon to be assessed internal candidates that have expressed interest. Any remaining slots will likely be filled by external training captain recruits.
We aired our concern in the way the company amended the Christmas leave lockout period from the previous complete December and January period to only a two week window. This was done without consultation and we have now found this has created the situation where suitably placed crew have missed out on longer periods either side of Christmas due to those days having already been approved via the regular leave allocation process. We suggested that this process needs to be formalized in our EBA and we provided the company ideas as to how this can be done. A formalised document is being prepared by your Council to forward to management at the earliest opportunity.
Please get involved. We’ve recently asked crew via the crew Facebook page to provide areas they want us to focus on in negotiations. We of course have built up a very clear picture over the past couple of years, but it is imperative that we focus on what you want us to work on. When the above mentioned survey is published in the next week or so please take the time to complete it – this will provide all unions with invaluable feedback so we can work together to bargain for the EBA you want.
If members are interested in attending any council meetings, you are very welcome. Please contact us on the email addresses below if this interests you.
Please continue to engage with your reps on all issues and if you can provide specific examples of grievances/issues experienced (including dates, flight number, leave applications) so we can collate them and provide to management – Persistence pays off.
As always your council reps are:
Anthony Clouting on
clouters@me.com
Eric Galliers on
ericgalliers@hotmail.com
Justin Gordon on
justin.gordon69@gmail.com
Paul Davison on
paul_davison85@hotmail.com
In addition, AFAP staff member Chris Aikens can be contacted on
chris@afap.org.au. The AFAP Member Assistance Program (MAP) can also be accessed via Freecall 1300 307 912.