AFAP Qantas Pilot Council Briefing No.3 2025
Long Haul Bargaining Update
We continue to meet with the Company with increasing regularity. In our most recent meeting, the Company outlined no less than 35 concessions they are seeking as part of a ‘package’. The AFAP has long been of the view that each item claimed in a negotiation must be considered individually for value so as to avoid a situation where pilots inadvertently give away far more than what they are gaining. ‘Packaging’ often muddies the waters when it comes to accounting and offsets. Many of these concessions may appear insignificant on face-value, but when consideration is given to the potential flow-on effects and unintended consequences of the concessions, it becomes apparent that many represent a tangible loss of protections.
We are cognisant of the fact that the most recent LH EAs saw pilots lose significant protections while dramatically increasing flexibility for the Company. Both EAs were voted on in extraordinarily challenging circumstances, with EA9 being voted on after almost 6 years of no recruitment, little movement, the lingering effects of the GFC and a barrage of threats about the outsourcing of flying.
EA10 was voted up in similarly pressured circumstances against the backdrop of Covid. Pilots have expressed clearly, and with consensus, that they have little interest in losing more territory when it comes to the multitude of protective clauses in the EA. They have also outlined their inherent distrust in the Company, developed over years of aggressive IR tactics, disregard for EA clauses and a willingness to go to court over grievances. The AFAP can attest to the fact that we have multiple grievance cases being investigated at any given moment, and the majority involve violations of EA clauses. With this in mind, it is difficult to imagine pilots agreeing to further losses of protections.
Your AFAP LH EA team has clearly outlined to the Qantas team the industrial hurdles that need to be overcome in these negotiations. We are open to negotiating some clauses but only after due consideration, with robust accounting and projection, is given to their consequences. We are mindful that Qantas, once again, is seeking a wage freeze, and completely offsetting this only represents a neutral starting point in these negotiations. Your EA team always negotiates with the potential next and following steps in mind. This includes giving consideration to Intractable Bargaining (IB).
Qantas has now provided us a detailed list of their claims. We will brief pilots with more details on these once we have had further discussions. As always, the negotiating team is guided on all bargaining matters by the entire QPC.
Questions
For any enquiries regarding regarding Short Haul bargaining or other 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
David LaPorte – Committee Member
Josh Chalmers – Committee Member
Rob Close – Committee Member