AFAP Qantas Pilot Council Briefing No.11
A reminder to all, if you are not a member yet, but would like to receive our briefs, please email
membership@afap.org.au with the subject line “Please add me to the QPC mailing list.” Also, members and non-members alike can now access our previously published briefs via the following link:
https://www.afap.org.au/membership/join-afap/afap-qantas-membership
Since our last update much has occurred industrially, namely the expected declaration by the FWC of intractable bargaining at Network. This has highlighted common misunderstandings about the union representative process by many pilots. It serves as a timely reminder that your union is exactly that; yours. It is members who determine the strategic direction a union takes, and it is members who dictate what they are worth and what they are willing to fight for. It is not up to union officials, elected or otherwise, to make decisions against the clearly stated claims of the members.
This whole process has served as a great example of exactly that correct process occurring; the Network AFAP bargaining representatives have made clear representations for the members based on exactly what the members have told them. We believe this is a significant contributing factor to the majority AFAP representation in Network Pilot ranks (over 90%). The QPC are equally committed to this transparent, member-driven approach. Our strategy and claims are determined by the members, then relayed to the company in the form of a “log of claims”.
Membership Subs
The company confirmed several weeks ago that the payroll deduction facility for membership fees would finally commence on the 7th of April. This is a great result that took well over 6 months to achieve. Members can now elect to have their fees deducted automatically from their pay. A reminder that AFAP fees are 1% of base salary (MGH), which, in most cases, makes them the lowest subscription of the major representative organisations available to mainline pilots.
SH EA update
Our SH EA team continues to meet with the company for SH negotiations. Our meeting last week was long and productive and covered our log of claims.
We reiterated the importance of the economic context of this next agreement, the backdrop of the extremely high inflation experienced through 2022 and 2023, and the fundamental issues with the existing agreement that have persisted and remain unaddressed. Any proposal worth considering needs to adequately address these. We believe that many of our claims are mutually beneficial, including reserve pay, which addresses company reserve crewing shortfalls.
Qantas advised that it intends to continue to apply its wages policy, however a pay proposal with an increased base salary through additional years in rank and higher MGH would be wages policy compliant. Qantas continues to resist implementing lifestyle and fatigue improvements and also continues to seek changes to the agreement in its favour.
With this in mind, we will continue to negotiate in good faith and make representations for our members. We believe our log of claims is achievable, fair and reasonable, and will create significant benefits for the business in the long term. It goes a long way to positively influence engagement and the employer-employee relationship with pilots, and would be a step in the right direction in creating an improved workplace culture.
Next Steps
In the next EA meeting the AFAP will address all of the various company responses to our log of claims. The QPC does not support artificial time pressures on arriving at an in-principle agreement, we believe only the content of any proposal will dictate our support of a vote.
Understanding the SH Log of Claims
As we have stated time and again, a log of claims approach is by far the most transparent and positive approach to negotiations your representatives can take. It is the mostly widely used, tried and tested, and industrially standard approach, with a proven track record. The company has been receptive to this form of negotiation.
Several weeks ago we provided a summary of the log of claims we put to the company. Some notes on these claims and explanations follow below:
Pay scales:
For some context, recent agreements have been reached in Australia across multiple comparable industries including below:
Aged Care workers - 28%
QF engineers – 21-33%
NAB staff – 17.5%
Maritime (DPWorld) – 23%
Virgin Australia’s latest proposal offered to pilots to vote on included pay rises of 39.9% over the life of the agreement.
The AFAP’s log of claims takes into account the acute spike in inflation experienced in the last 2 years which has seen pilot salaries go significantly backwards relative to the cost of living. It also takes into account the persisting elevated inflation over the following two years. It should be noted that over the last 50 years, the average annual inflation has been just below 4%. This means with standard rises of 3% pilots have historically gone continuously backwards. In developing our log of claims, the emphasis you provided through the survey was that you were absolutely unwilling to be going backwards in relative terms, and wanted to see a tangible rise in remuneration in line with industry.
Duty RIG:
AFAP’s claim of a duty RIG is essentially a way to improve rosters. A duty RIG is a minimum payment of 60% of the duty hours from sign-on to sign-off. To be clear, pilots would receive the higher of their flight hours or the duty RIG.
Trip RIG:
AFAP’s claim of a trip RIG is a minimum of 1 credit hour for each 3.5 hours away from Home Base on a multi-day pattern, calculated from sign-on in Home Base to sign-off in Home Base. This is to ensure, once again, that pilots are not punished for inefficiency.
LH News
Our long haul EA survey will be released in the near future ahead of negotiations. We have worked very hard to ensure the survey is free from bias and vague questioning that gives negotiator bias leeway. As mentioned previously, our negotiations will be a transparent process. The negotiating team will not be signing NDAs that gag them from transparent discussions with your elected officials. We understand there are multiple key issues that have arisen due to the changes in the last few EAs, and we anticipate the survey data will give us direction on the priority of these issues.
BLH
The issue of high levels of blank-line holders in some categories continues to be an issue. As previously mentioned, we have been advised that in some instances the problem is particularly acute as delays in aircraft returning to the line has resulted in surplus pilots in category, and the possibility of assigned leave remains in play. This puts pilots between a rock and a hard place. And while unforeseen circumstances do manifest, it is the pilots once again paying the price. We are committed to ensuring blank-lines aren’t used in place of correct resource planning in the future.
Commitment from the QPC
All four Qantas Pilots Council members have made a commitment that they will not accept company management roles within 5 years of the end of their tenure as elected council members and no training roles within 3 years. This is an important commitment made to members that will be minuted in the next council meeting. Given the history of presidents and other high ranking elected union officials moving quickly into company management positions, it is understandable people have formed a scepticism surrounding union executive roles. We hope this commitment goes some way towards demonstrating our dedication to representing members’ interests.
Finally, it’s a timely reminder that at present, your Qantas Pilots Council is 4 volunteers covering the breadth of issues present in mainline. If any members would like to get involved, we welcome the assistance. This year there will be more council spots available, and we hope some additional motivated members will nominate to be part of this positive change for Qantas pilots. Every one of us has a busy life and many other things to be doing, but the future direction and quality of our profession, and the integrity of our collective is determined by the extent to which good people volunteer to give some of their time.
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