On Friday 23 May 2025 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 (Acting Secretary, Meals and Welfare)
- Louise Pole (Meals & Annual Leave)
- Dan Lyons (Rostering)
- Bianca Salim (Rostering)
- Rod Millroy
- Russell Thompson
Russell Thompson was an apology for the meeting due to annual leave. Simon Lutton from the AFAP joined the meeting while Chris Aikens is on annual leave.
At 11:30am Peter O’Toole (Manager, Crewing) joined via Teams to discuss various ROC matters.
After lunch company representatives, Jonathan Ioannou and Alana Wark, also joined the meeting in person to provide responses to our various suggestions and questions.
Roster Stability (Post Roster Publish)
Continuing issues with roster changes post roster publish were discussed with Peter O’Toole.
The Council highlighted that ROC should offer pilots “call ins” in a fair and equitable manner with due regard to avoiding subsequent CAO days and disruptions to other duties. This includes making a pilot unavailable on a subsequent reserve duty. We also noted that if a pilot subsequently runs late affecting their ability to perform the following duty they should be placed onto RA (displaced reserve). The Council also advised that hours accrued when working a day off should not count towards duty hours when selecting the pilot with the lowest duty hours off reserve.
The Council highlighted that there are very limited situations where a pilot should have their roster altered. The four situations are disruptions to service, training, cancellations and running out of hours. A pilot should not agree to or have their roster altered for any other reason. The Council also noted that swaps are only for personal swaps between two pilots where it does not cause any subsequent changes or impact to other pilots.
In relation to crewing multi-day trips off reserve, the Council noted that this can and should normally be done by multiple pilots off single day reserves. A multi-day trip does not need to be covered by one pilot off reserve and it is not the intention of the EA to have multi-day reserves.
Due to ongoing knowledge issues and inconsistencies in ROC advice we suggested a dedicated “pod” of crewing officers with specialist knowledge of the Dash 8 operation and EAs. Peter O’Toole noted that this has been discussed internally but is not likely in the near future.
Finally, the Council provided Peter O’Toole with examples of crewing contacting pilots within 30 minutes of departure (while in the aircraft) and multiple calls to pilots not on duty/reserve on the same day. We explained that pilots should only be contacted within 30 minutes of departure in emergency situations, and it is sufficient to call a pilot not on duty or reserve once and leave a message.
Peter O’Toole advised he would “round back” to the Council with a dot point email and we thanked him for his time and support.
Sign-On Times
Further to previous meetings the below table of sign-on times in accordance with clause 5.28 of the current Sunstate EA has been confirmed:
It is expected that the above sign-on times will be coded into JCR in R7, however if crew have times rostered that are not in accordance with the table, prior to this, they should raise it with SBP’s to have it rectified.
Jeppesen Crew Rostering (JCR)
The rostering reps have been working with the company to achieve as fairer rosters as possible under the Jeppesen Crew Rostering (JCR) software. It was however noted that the current period of fleet transition is creating some issues that are best left addressed once the transition is ‘bedded down’. For this reason, we believe it is best to wait until R8 before significantly changing current roster costings, penalties and preferences within the JCR software.
We did however take up some issues with the Company regarding the need to avoid rosters with 6 days of work and relatedly, the clustering of days off (unless specifically requested).
It was noted that the long running issue of mandatory acknowledgements remains open and while there currently is an agreed ‘work around’, the grace period we have provided expires on 14 July 2025.
Overall, the Council suggested the schedule should be reduced to suit the current resource levels rather than continuing to stretch crew. That pilots are tired and working hard was acknowledged by the Company representatives but no tangible undertakings to reducing the schedule were provided.
Related to this point we suggested that certain management or admin pilots should fly more, including weekends. This was noted.
Establishment Numbers for EA Compliance
The Company provided the Committee with visibility on the crew projections from R7 2025 to R3 2026.
While there certainly are some improvements and it is getting closer, we are not projected to achieve establishment numbers to provide 10 days off per roster to all pilots over this period.
The Company undertook to provide us details of the percentage of Captains and FOs who nominated 10 or 9 days off in the recent EOI process.
Meals
It was noted that the presentations for the Cairns and Townsville meals were recently completed (picture attached) and these are expected to be implemented shortly.
The Brisbane meal presentation is due in July with implementation around September. Due to personnel changes on the Council, it was noted that the Adelaide meals fell behind and were not rotated when due but are now being actioned with the provision of the current Brisbane rotation. There will also be a specific Adelaide meal presentation involving Bianca Salim later in the year.
Support Cyclics
For the purposes of Clause 39.4 of the EA – the company has confirmed that the "per cyclic" period commences each year on 1 March and 1 September. Cyclic period can run long but never commences earlier. This means the two relevant periods are:
1 March to 31 August; and
1 September to 28 February
During these periods a pilot may only be rostered one support per cyclic period. Note: a cyclic is two sim sessions therefore a pilot can be rostered both sessions as one support.
Annual Leave
The final annual leave awards have been published and allocations have been made as required by the EA. All further leave slots will now be managed under the ad hoc leave process.
Other matters
Other matters of note include:
- Each pilot’s Long Service Leave (LSL) balance has been reinstituted onto payslips;
- We raised problems with access cards at various ports such as Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton, Mackay and Canberra;
- We raised issues with ground support in Adelaide regarding preparing aircraft for the first flight of the day;
- There were problems with some pilots being underpaid DHA during the phase in of the new rates however this is being audited; and
- It is likely that a Hervey Bay overnight may return to the schedule.
Airport Security Screening
On a final note, all pilots should be aware that the AFAP has recently conducted a survey on issues encountered when going through security screening. This survey has revealed some alarming incidents and patterns, notably within some Sunstate ports, which the AFAP is progressing through a dedicated working group. Any pilot who encounters inappropriate conduct while going through screening should report the matter and email the AFAP.
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, Richard Copland, Dan Lyons, Louise Pole, Bianca Salim, Rod Millroy and Russell Thompson
Sunstate Pilot Council Committee