Qantas EBA9

Qantas reveals more detail on Claims

Details

Published on Wednesday, 25 August, 2010

The ASU National Negotiating team met with Qantas for our 9^th meeting on the 19^th August. At that meeting Qantas finally presented more detail on their claims. Your NNT are very cautious about what has been proposed; from cashing out of annual leave to the increased use of temporary employees.

Qantas’ ‘flexibility’ comes at the expense of a permanent workforce and work-life balance.

Qantas responses overview

Here is an overview of what Qantas management said:

ASU Classification Claim

Qantas restated their position of putting our classification claim through their reclassification committee. We are skeptical of this process given that we cannot remember the last time a claim was successful. We are particularly concerned about the impartiality of this process given that Qantas appear to have already made up their mind about the conclusion of this process.

In the negotiations they stated that some of our claims “have hairs on them they have been around for that long” – that doesn’t seem a fair consideration to us.  The National Negotiating Team will continue to pursue these claims in EBA negotiations although we have agreed to meet their “committee”.

Qantas claims

Cashing out annual leave

Qantas have proposed a clause in which employees will have the opportunity to cash out annual leave above 4 weeks by mutual agreement. We hold deep concerns about this clause given how hard it already is to access annual leave at Qantas.

Many NNT members are concerned that cashing out leave will become the default position and Qantas employees will lose their practical ability to access annual leave.

Taking away the Mascot early morning shift allowance

Qantas want to remove the Mascot 17.5% morning shift allowance for workers in Sydney. Qantas claim the allowance is unfair to workers outside Sydney so should be equalised by removing the allowance for Mascot workers. Why, we ask, isn’t the inequity resolved by giving workers everywhere 17.5%?  Cutting the shift allowance means people lose money and is not on!

Temporary employees

Qantas want to be able to use temporary employees for up to 114 weeks (currently the limit is 52 weeks). Qantas claim there is no agenda with this claim. We don’t believe them. 

When quizzed on this issue, they argue that they are pursuing this claim so that if a situation such as the collapse of Ansett occurs again they have the flexibility to bring on temporary employees. However when asked if they expect Virgin to collapse, they said they don’t.

We question their motivations here, most especially as the claim is being put amidst the introduction of Airports of the Future. Generally we think that a wholesale extension of temporaries to 2 years other than in special circumstances threatens permanent employees.

20^th Day provision

Qantas has proposed to continue the optional payout of up to 10 RDOs each year but has also proposed a compulsory buyout of unused days over 10 days.  We pointed out this proposal has implications for staff who bank RDOs with annual leave.  Management is going away to think about this issue again.

Transport and Social Disability Allowance

Qantas have raised the issue of combining the transport and social disability allowance but have promised this claim will not seek a reduction in the amount of the allowance. We are yet to see the detail here but they say they are just changing the administrative way of paying the allowance on a regular basis.  We await the detail.

Part time

We will discuss the issue of part time claim at the next meeting.

Notice of rostering changes

At our last meeting management, in rejecting our rostering change claim, proposed a meeting with Airports Head Matt Lee on the iRoster problems that are common at airports.

Immediately following the meeting of the full negotiation team on 19^th August, the airports delegates met with Head of Airports, Matt Lee and others to discuss the issue of rostering. The ASU team did a great job of explaining the issues at each of their ports and it was evident that Matt Lee was hearing many of these issues for the first time.

This issue of rostering has plagued airports for a long time and while Matt Lee made all the right noises about finding a solution, we will believe progress when we see it. That being said we look forward to working with him to restore work life balance and sensible rostering for ASU members at Qantas.

Matt Lee said he would look more closely at what was said and another meeting is scheduled for 14^th September 2010.

What’s next?

The following is the schedule of further meetings:

• 27^th August – QFIT 1-10 issues meeting
• 31^st August – Qantas EBA 9 meeting
• 14^th September – Airpots Roster Meetings / Qantas EBA 9

If you want more information talk to your local organisers Lauren Hutchins or Fergal Eiffe, delegates or National Negotiating Team members: