Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has another industrial relations battle on her hands, with pilots voicing their displeasure after the airline’s main pilots’ union, the Australian International and Pilots Association (AIPA), agreed “in principle” to a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) with its mainline short-haul pilots.
The airline’s management is insisting on a two-year pay freeze (for 2022-23) — the third for pilots in the past 30 years — amid record profits and executive bonuses. Pilots are being offered 3% for 2025, 2026 and 2027 and the possibility of an extra 2.5% in 2027, as inflation continues to run above 3.5% and has been as high as 6.6% across the life of the EBA.
The latest agreement comes as Hudson battles regional pilots and cabin crew in separate cases being considered by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The Australian Federation of Airline Pilots (AFAP) — which has far lower membership among Qantas short-haul pilots than AIPA — rejected the deal in a letter, saying: “Our view is Qantas needs to significantly improve the headline wages outcome.”
AIPA has made a few gains in the agreement regarding increased minimum hours and “important structural improvements”, according to an email from chief pilot Dick Tobiano seen by Crikey. But the general tone of the union’s note about the deal to its members this week was defensive, pilots said.
“The obvious solution to the increasing cost of living would have been to bargain for an increase to the hourly rate of pay. We pressed hard on this point throughout the negotiations, however, the company would not agree to go outside of its two-year wage freeze policy,” AIPA said.
“We understand the sensitivity of this issue with our members and understand that some people would like to have seen the wages policy revoked. We were in a position where we could keep pressing on this point where we had made no effective progress, or we could also bargain to give an effective pay rise through other means.”
Pilots who spoke to Crikey have been scathing.
“It’s typical behaviour from Qantas management who continue to treat workers that fly and maintain aircraft differently to the company’s office-based managers and executives,” one pilot told Crikey. Another noted that “there was not much in it” and that “737 pilots are angry”.
In a comment on pilots’ forum PPruNe, another pilot said: “If the money the company made was going into rapid fleet expansion, route network growth, facilities, etc, there’d almost be an argument that it was at least being spent for the employees betterment and the securing of long-term company performance. But it isn’t — it’s just being used to prop up the share price [with serial share buybacks].”
Executive bonuses at Qantas are still largely based on the company’s share price.
The deal also appears to fly in the face of AIPA’s critique issued two months ago, which said: “Qantas needs to discard previous industrial ideology to ensure this country has enough pilots to meet projected demand and to protect these assets, including you, from looking overseas for better opportunities, no matter what stage of your career.”
Qantas mainline still offers domestic pilots the best salary and conditions in the country. But Virgin pilots struck a similar pay deal only days earlier that has been better received, according to pilots. There are also provisions for fast-tracking pilots into short-haul, underscoring the tightness in the pilot market now being felt in Qantas regional subsidiaries where pilots are lower paid.
AIPA admitted it had failed to get coverage in the new agreement for pilots in the new A220 aircraft. Those pilots are paid less and Qantas is struggling to fill seats in the flight deck, pilots said.
Insiders said there were promising signs this week for pilots at Perth-based Qantas subsidiary Network Aviation, where the airline is using a pay dispute to test the new “intractable bargaining” powers of the Fair Work Commission. The FWC can adjudicate its own EBA when two sides reach an impasse, and has backed unions in a fight with waste management company Cleanaway on weekend rostering under intractable bargaining provisions.
AIPA’s committee of management will now review the Qantas pilots agreement. If passed, it will go to a member vote in the coming months.
“Closing loopholes that took money away from employees through no fault of their own and guaranteeing that they will work more hours is not any sort of forward step and the arrogance on display by sticking to the 0% wage policy will be reflected in the vote”, another pilot on PPRuNe said.
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