AFAP Qantas Pilot Council Briefing No. 6
Happy Friday everyone,
Short Haul Offer
As many of you would be aware, a SH EA offer was made by the Company to AIPA on 27 November 2023, with a revised offer then made to AIPA on Friday 15 December 2023.
The AFAP requested the Company provide the AFAP with details of the offer in the interests of bargaining in good faith. Contrary to the good faith bargaining requirements, the Company rejected our request, and advised the offers were made on a confidential basis as the Company did not want to make the details of the offer available to pilots.
On Tuesday 19 December, the AFAP notified the Company of a breach of Good Faith Bargaining Requirements, setting out the sections of the good faith bargaining requirements in section 228 of the Fair Work Act 2009 we believed the Company had breached by not sharing the SH EA offer with the AFAP.
Subsequently, the Company has made the details of the offer made to AIPA available to the AFAP and SH pilots.
Based on the SH survey results, the QPC believes the offer is a long way from what we would consider acceptable enough for pilots to vote on, and as a result does not warrant genuine consideration.
SH pilots are increasingly junior, often starting after day 1 on the 737, and the primary reason for this, it can be assumed, is the unattractive nature of the agreement. The recent SH EA offer presented by the Company does little to address any of the major issues flagged in the AFAP SH survey, and financially penalises pilots via a 2 year pay freeze with subsequent pay rises well below inflation. This offer therefore represents a significant drop in real pay adjusted for inflation over the covered period.
It is our position, based on the very clear survey results, that pilots should see a rise in real pay over and above the inflation rate, accounting for the loses pilots have already encountered while their yearly rises were well below inflation.
It is important for our members to be aware of the various tactics that can be utilised during the negotiation process. As detailed in our previous Brief, such tactics may include the use of subconscious conditioning and anchoring, whereby a party presents an offer that effectively becomes the starting point for negotiations by default. This offer may fall well short of expectations, however, by presenting it the party anchors their position, and any movement from this position could be viewed as a positively negotiated movement. Any improvements therefore, appear more favourable than they actually are.
In previous EA negotiations, the Company has presented offers to the pilots with or without the implicit support of the relevant representative union. It could be surmised then, that in previous negotiations, the Company had an intention to ‘sell’ their offer to the pilots through their own information channels. Often information presented this way is skewed.
We encourage members to keep the previously mentioned industrial context in mind, the significant loses in previous EA negotiations (often voted up in the context of threats and conditioning), the current recognised global pilot shortage, the favourable financial position the Company enjoys, the high and persistent inflation environment we all live in, and the on-going significant pain-points in the current SH EA.
Moving forward, we will provide a clear breakdown of any offers put forward by the Company, and share important information. We encourage pilots to view all EA information presented by the Company critically.
Merry Christmas from your AFAP QPC representatives.
For any general inquiries regarding this update or other matters at Qantas please contact the AFAP legal and industrial team of Senior Legal/ Industrial Officer Pat Larkins (
patrick@afap.org.au), Senior Industrial Officer Chris Aikens (
chris@afap.org.au), or Executive Director Simon Lutton (
simon@afap.org.au).
Regards,
AFAP Qantas Pilot Council
Michael Egan - Chair
Mark Gilmour - Vice- Chair
Daniel Kobeleff - Secretary
Michael Armessen - Committee Member