Arbitration Update - Further Directions Issued By the FWC
Following the disappointing news yesterday that Qantas were seeking to drag out this process by seeking further submissions and hearings, we can now advise that further directions have now been issued by the FWC.
The news is thankfully not as bad as we had feared, in that the Full Bench has only agreed for further written response submissions to be filed by Friday 23rd May and that no hearing will be scheduled. While still distressing that Qantas has delayed this matter, the decision not to hold a hearing will save alot of time as scheduling both the Full Bench and Senior Counsels is always a difficult and slow process.
In addition the actions of Qantas to continually seek deferrals has clearly been registered by the Full Bench who made the clear statement that they expected the parties to 'strictly adhere to the timeframes provided'.
That said, the action of Qantas have delayed this whole process by over a month as the first deadline for submissions was originally 22nd April. Each month delay of course saves the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is clearly not the actions of an employer wanting to calm the waters after the bitter industrial battles of 2024, and seemingly the new senior management are having no sway in changing the disastrous IR culture that has so tarnished the reputation of the Qantas both in the eyes of employees and the public.
The next step will be for the AFAP to supplement their original material (previously circulated) and provide responses to the 'interesting' submission made by Qantas that quite neatly skirted around the issue of reserve and the direct impact on a BOOT assessment.
As always your Council will keep you updated.
As always your AFAP Network Aviation Pilot Council are:
Stephen Maughan:
smaughan@iinet.net.au
Ben Walmsley:
ben.walms@gmail.com
Joshua Sheldon:
Josh.b.sheldon@gmail.com
Sasha Leavy:
sasha_leavy@hotmail.com
Matt Atkinson:
matkinson209@gmail.com
Eman Zimmerman:
mano01@hotmail.com
Mark Levitt:
ml.network.pilotcouncil@outlook.com
Geoffrey Aro:
flyingaro@gmail.com
In addition, the AFAP Senior Industrial Officer Chris Aikens is contactable on
chris@afap.org.au. The AFAP Member Assistance Program (MAP) can be contacted via Freecall 1300 307 912. The AFAP website also advises of other welfare services at
https://www.afap.org.au/membership/member-articles/welfare-services