AFAP Qantas Pilot Council Briefing No.17
A friendly reminder, if you are not yet a member 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”.
Short Haul Voting
Voting for the Company’s SH EA9 proposal opens next week on Tuesday. The QPC recommends that SH pilot’s vote ‘no’ to this proposal. It is important that all eligible pilots participate in voting, as it is 50% + 1 of those pilots who vote, needed to approve the agreement.
For those of you who have not yet read our analysis of the proposal you can find it here. The analysis:
- Provides an explanation of the negotiation environment and the AFAP’s negotiation process;
- Outlines and analyses various items contained in the Company’s SH EA9 offer;
- Details an alternative offer that the AFAP QPC has put to the Company that we believe satisfies both our SH member’s and the broader SH pilot group’s stated requirements as indicated by our survey results; and
- A next steps guide authored by the AFAP solicitors, outlining the expected negotiation process should the Company’s EA9 offer fail to achieve SH pilot endorsement.
It is important to remember, there is a well-trodden path following a ‘no’ vote. Recently, Virgin Australia, after the pilots voted ‘no’ to their initial offer, improved their offer to their pilots with assistance at conciliation from the Fair Work Commission. Network Aviation’s first offer was improved through a negotiated process after the first ‘no’ vote and then subsequent offers improved after the AFAP took PIA.
This is not a suggestion that pilots should ‘unreasonably vote no’, however, as we have highlighted through recent communications, it is the QPC’s position that the SH EA9 offer does not stack up.
As briefed last week, and contained in our explanatory document, the AFAP QPC has provided an alternative offer to the Company that has been well received by the Company’s negotiators.
We believe that following a ‘no’ vote, an improved negotiated outcome can be achieved. The AFAP approach is to focus on a negotiated outcome and we believe that given our alternate offer is not significantly far from the EA on offer, a negotiated outcome in a short time frame is possible.
Lastly, the Company has advised SH pilots that they would receive a one-off recovery retention bonus of $5000 if the proposed EA is endorsed by SH pilots. The QPC’s position is that a one-off $5000 pre-tax sign-on bonus is entirely insignificant in comparison to the additional guaranteed compounding pay rises in the AFAP’s alternative offer and the significant concessions that SH pilot’s are being asked to give away in this EA.
A few words about the QPC
Far from ‘promising the world’ or simply tapping into populist rhetoric, the QPC’s positions have always been measured. Our positions have been a balance between what our very experienced professional legal and industrial staff believe is the path that will generate the closest outcomes to the pilots’ claims and representing those claims to the Company directly.
In developing a strategic path forward, we have analysed all possible outcomes, considered the political and industrial landscape we find ourselves in. It would be remiss of us to suggest achieving the best possible outcomes for the pilots would not involve significant challenges, but that is what this professional organisation is for, and why you pay membership fees. We believe in this profession and maintaining safe, sustainable and reasonable work practices for pilots.
None of us on the QPC are active in the various forums and discussions that take place online, be it Pprune, Qrewroom, Slack or the various Facebook groups, primarily because this can serve as a distraction from the task you have elected us to perform. Specifically, transparent representation.
Often the noisiest online rhetoric does not accurately reflect a majority or even a common approach to issues, therefore we lean heavily on surveys to understand the pilots we represent. We are very process driven in our approach to representing you, and take extraordinary legal care to make sure we can stand by what we say. This means there are no executive decisions, and that the Council is involved in all decisions, negotiation consultation and in briefing the pilots.
We are focused always on representing you with strength, courage, humility and a commitment to making things better. We do not find ways to convince you of our position, rather we take your position (the majority) and present it to the Company. We pass on the legal and industrial advice from the most experienced team representing pilots in Australia and ensure that you are ‘in the loop’ in terms of what is achievable and what the next steps are throughout. The data we have collected demonstrates pilots are reasonable, but that they do not wish to continue the trend of recent EAs.
It is also timely to remind pilots we are a council of volunteers. None of us receive payments (from the Company or the AFAP), time relief or preferential bidding for the extensive work we put into your representation. Given the work behind the scenes in keeping a professional and process-driven approach to a multitude of day to day issues and larger grievances, the QPC takes issue with any suggestions we engage in politicking.
Qantas pilot membership growth has been significant for the AFAP this year, and the reasons for joining the AFAP follow consistent themes. The AFAP’s depth of experience and low-turnover in legal staff, along with a transparent and methodical approach to negotiations, grievances and consultation have been elements commonly expressed by pilots as reasons for joining. Lastly, we are focused on our interactions with the Company in representing you, and we will continue this focus.
For any enquiries regarding matters at Qantas please contact any of us or 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