Qantas EBA9
Qantas - Its Premium for some but NOT Others!
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 11 August, 2010
The ASU National negotiating team met with Qantas representatives on Wednesday 4 August for Round 8 of negotiations for EBA 9.
At this meeting, in typical style, Qantas targeted our wages trying to say Virgin Blue staff at airports are paid 12% less than Qantas staff at airports. They say that has to be taken into account for all of the almost 8,000 people covered by our ASU EBA.
The company refused to say what wage outcome they wanted, save to say they have to be competitive - whatever that means? Clearly they are OK with their managers being paid more than Virgin Blue managers, but apparently not anyone else.
We expect the spin
Every EBA Management puts the “let’s compare Qantas with others” spin – as though they can do nothing about it.
Well – we all know they could have done something about it when the Airlines Ground Staff Award was modernised. The Company had an opportunity to argue that the conditions they pay are the industry standard, the Award should reflect this – what did they do?
Instead decided to drive the Award Wages and allowances as low as they could go – even in the face of existing conditions and rates in ASU Awards. So when Qantas complains about competitiveness – they forced the Award benchmarks down for other airlines and ground handlers by their actions. They can’t complain now when they could have done something about this.
Qantas is not about competitiveness – they are about driving wages down – actions speak louder than words!
Pay Rise
As indicated, Qantas discussed at length the competitive pressures that Virgin imposes. According to the Qantas negotiators life is hard at Qantas at the moment, and Virgin is closing in on their market.
Management even went so far as to say that the 5% pay rise the ASU has claimed could lead to Qantas going the way of Ansett! A strange comment when you consider how many ex Ansett Executives are now Qantas Senior Executives! Of course, as our delegates pointed out, Qantas could easily cover our pay rise. They just need to prioritise staff over other “priorities”.
What was discussed
A number of other issues were discussed and we made some progress with Qantas presenting counter claims and accepting that the importance of issues such as staff travel and rostering.
Here is an overview of the rest of the discussions:
Staff Travel
ASU delegates met with Jon Scriven Group Executive People and other Qantas representatives on 26th July to discuss the issue of staff travel. While it is positive that we have been able to put our issues to someone at the top of the Qantas tree, Qantas continues to hold the view that staff travel is not something they will put into the EBA, though they conceded that it was a matter important to employees and they would look at it in parallel with EBA negotiations.
We have pointed out there is nothing to preclude us making such a claim. The response so far on our substantive issues is “we will get back to you”.
Classifications
We have presented evidence for the reclassification of a range of positions in Airports, Freight, Telesales and Load Control.
Qantas refuses to entertain our claims as an EBA claim and instead want to process them through the reclassification processes outlined in the current EBA. We can’t remember the last time a claim was successful through this process, and it appears that neither can Qantas or they certainly couldn’t provide any examples of a successful reclassification in the meeting.
The ASU representatives are entitled to put reclassification as an EBA claim and will continue to negotiate the claim in the forum of EBA negotiations. Qantas are entitled to pursue whatever ‘process’ they want to come to a view of our claim but ultimately they will have to return to the issue at the negotiating table.
Undeterred by Qantas’ negative response the National Negotiating team justified a number of the reclassifications, including the increased work intensity and skills required across the board in Telesales and the job changes in Freight.
Rostering
While Qantas has rejected our claim to extend the rostering notice period on the basis that it would be damaging to the company, Qantas has conceded, after your NNT supplied mountains of evidence, that there is a rostering and notice problem at least at airports. They have proposed a high level meeting involving Head of Airports Matt Lee. This is a positive sign but we have not backed off from our claim but will approach this suggestion positively if not cautiously.
We have requested an urgent meeting.
Payroll Issue
Qantas has presented us with a draft clause to counter our claim regarding over payments and underpayments in pays. Qantas expressed the view that they do not believe underpayments should be included in the EBA, but are very concerned that overpayments – where they are the party short of money – are included in the EBA.
We have asked for further clarifications and some examples of how this clause might affect members. The National Negotiating team is reviewing the suggested clause from Qantas and will consider it for future meetings in conjunction with all the payroll issues, including Qantas’ proposal to the last negotiations meeting to move payroll from one week ahead and one in arrears to two weeks arrears.
What we still don’t know
We have still not received details from Qantas on their following claims:
- Mascot Shift Allowance cut to 15%
- Change to Disability / Transport Allowance
- Cashing out of 20th Days
- Cash out of Annual Leave
- Extension of temps to 24 months
Hopefully we will get these clauses at the next meeting. It is difficult to assess the claims without an exact understanding of what is being proposed.
What’s next?
The following is the schedule of further meetings:
10th August – Ambiguities meeting
12th August – QFIT 1-10 issues meeting
19th August – Qantas EBA 9 meeting
31st August – Qantas EBA 9 meeting
If you want more information talk to your local organisers Lauren Hutchins This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Fergal Eiffe This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or delegates.
