AIR PILOTS AWARD

Since 29 June 2022, in addition to action concerning the wearing of uniforms, AFAP’s Saab pilot members at Rex have adopted a ban on loading extra fuel prior to flights (known as “tankering”), where the purpose of loading that extra fuel is to avoid refuelling at ports where fuel is more expensive.

This PIA, and potentially other actions, look set to continue well into July 2022, unless Rex management agrees to significantly improve upon their latest offer.

The AFAP team remains ready and willing to meet with Rex management to progress negotiations at any time. However, we have also communicated clearly to the company what standard will need to be met in order to bring about a suspension of PIA.

Any productive negotiations would be welcomed by our members, who pride themselves on providing a valuable service to regional Australia.

We were pleased to see that Rex reported to the Australian Stock Exchange (on 15 June) that the airline will soon return to pre-pandemic flying levels.

In light of those statements, there can be no justification for Rex’s unwillingness to offer its pilots a fair deal.

AIR PILOTS AWARD 2020

The Air Pilots Award 2020 has undergone some changes due to the finalisation of the review of Modern Awards conducted by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) and annual wage review.

FWC Annual Wage Review 2021-22

On 15 June, as a result of its Annual Wage Review 202122, the Fair Work Commission announced an increase of 5.2% to the minimum wage and an increase of 4.6% to Award rates and allowances.

Although most Award rates will increase by this amount from 1 July 2022, certain industries such as the aviation, hospitality and tourism industries will have increases delayed until 1 October 2022. The FWC stated this delay of three months was provided because of the particular effects that Covid-19 had on those industries.

Accordingly, the salaries and allowances contained in the Air Pilots Award 2020 will increase by 4.6% in October 2022.

Review of Modern Awards

As part of the four year review of Modern Awards (that commenced in 2014!) has finally concluded.

This review required the FWC to review all 110 modern awards to ensure they were meeting their modern award objective. The changes to the Air Pilots Award 2020 as part of this review that have now been confirmed and included are::

• Introduction of further aircraft types into the

Regional Aviation schedule; and • Introduction of bonding provisions.

The other notable aspect was confirmation of the novel step of including rotary wing air crew into the Air Pilots Award 2020. This was the result of a decision of the Fair Work Commission in 2020.

Originally, the rotary wing air crew were seeking the creation of their own award, however the Fair Work Commission found that the existing Air Pilots Award 2020 was an appropriate instrument to cover this classification of employees.