NATIONAL Pilot Council

Airwork

Five Airwork pilots have come forward to be involved in the resumed Enterprise Agreement (EA) negotiations. Due to the highly fluid pilot market, a log of claims has been devised to better attract and retain pilots as turnover within the company has been problematic.

The negotiating team has met with the company on three occasions to progress the log of claims to replace the EA that expired in June 2020. Thankfully the previous agreement included a clause for salary increases in line with CPI to continue until a replacement EA comes into effect.

Negotiations are not progressing well with the company already only offering a 3% for salary increases despite high cost of living pressures. Further meetings are scheduled and it is hoped more meaningful responses and offers will be forthcoming from the company. It is expected that further feedback will have to be sought from the membership group to potentially apply some more pressure on the employer.

Alliance & Bravo

The widely reported potential sale of the Alliance group, including Bravo Airlines (the employing entity for E190 pilots), to Qantas overshadows most industrial discussions. In 2019 Qantas purchased 19.9% of Alliance, and expressed its interest in ultimately acquiring all of it. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has this year opposed the acquisition by Qantas.

This has not, however, impacted Qantas' decision to wet-lease even more Embraer 190 jets from Alliance. In recent news it was said that Qantas intends to increase the total to 22 airframes wet-leased in the near future.

In a separate important development for AFAP members with Alliance and Bravo, in late April all pilots based in Queensland were advised that the two companies were intending to soon commence negotiations for a single interest enterprise agreement. While this was an unexpected development, both pilot groups being under a single EA makes sense.

The AFAP had already been approached by members employed in Queensland looking to commence bargaining for a new EA, given that their existing EA had passed its nominal expiry date nearly two years ago.

Bravo E190 pilots in other states have been surprised by the bargaining development in Queensland. There seems to be a widespread view amongst AFAP members at Bravo that they would prefer a single EA covering all the Company’s E190 pilots.

Given that Bravo has at times struggled to retain experienced pilots, the AFAP questions why the company would now believe having some pilots on an EA, whilst others remain on the Air Pilot Award, is likely to resolve that immediate problem.

The AFAP is commencing court action against Bravo Airlines relating to Alliance/Bravo withholding monies on termination from pilots who allegedly broke bond agreements relating to E190 training. These pilots were already E190 type-rated when they joined Bravo.

The key issue to be determined is whether a pilot can be bonded for training relating to a type rating they already hold. The AFAP’s position is that under the Award a pilot cannot be bonded for a type rating they already hold. This is an important issue which could have significant implications for other areas of the industry.

Bonza Airlines

In recent months, the AFAP has been contacted by members who have, or are considering, a Bonza job offer.

Obviously it takes a new operation time to ‘settle in’, but the AFAP is already aware of some early concerns that members have raised in relation to the overall pay and conditions that are on offer, and the hours they work.

The AFAP is closely monitoring the situation, and has contacted Bonza management to discuss the various issues of concern (before they potentially escalate).

Civil Aviation Safety Authority

The AFAP and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association (ALAEA) have supported the Professionals Australia (PA) application for a Majority Support Determination, with the unions jointly seeking for bargaining to commence for a technical employees enterprise agreement.

While the matter was with the Fair Work Commission CASA unexpectedly notified it would start bargaining with the whole employee group, Due to this the application could not proceed.

The AFAP will support members with bargaining and work alongside the union group with PA, ALAEA and the Australian Public Sector Union (APSU). The aim continues to be to improve conditions for technical employees, including pilots employed at CASA. Agile working arrangements by CASA have continued to be implemented, as well as other ongoing change management with varied results.

Flight Training Adelaide

AFAP members raised concerns about the application of the Award conditions and suggested bargaining as a way forward for mutually beneficial tailored conditions. Flight Training Australia (FTA) did not respond positively to the request or acknowledge the benefits of an enterprise agreement, the employer went as far to tell employees bargaining would result in inflexible conditions.

Since the AFAP correspondence about duty hours began there has been more attention to these conditions by FTA. The AFAP and SA/QLD-based pilots are discussing options to address conditions through enterprise bargaining and a majority support determination.

Learn to Fly Australia

The AFAP assisted members who as existing employees were presented with contractor arrangements that included rates below the Air Pilots Award 2020. The positive outcome from the pilot group seeking AFAP assistance resulted in the employer providing part time contracts upholding the object of employment in the Fair Work Act and Award. The AFAP continues to work with members regarding various concerns.

Leidos Airborne Solutions

Bargaining at Leidos Airborne Solutions (formerly Cobham Special Mission) that had paused throughout COVID-19 resumed in December 2022 and further meetings were scheduled for March this year.

However, since then Leidos management has ignored requests to respond to the proposals and claims put forward by the pilots (and observers) and has only offered to next meet at the end of June – 110 days since the March meeting.

As a consequence, the AFAP was forced to do what is very rarely done – seek Good Faith Bargaining Orders against the company for it refusing to bargain in good faith – refusing to schedule regular and timely meetings and refusing to respond to proposals and to provide relevant information.

Fortunately, good sense prevailed. At the 11th hour, and literally during the proceedings before the FWC's Deputy President Colman on 9 June, the company agreed to not only respond to the employees’ proposals and claims, but also agreed to schedule a further two meetings. As a result a full hearing was avoided.

At the same time, the company has decided to reintroduce fly-in, fly-out arrangements. These. arrangements will be subject to bargaining which will be considered when the parties resume negotiations.

Network Aviation Australia

The last six months for the Perth-based Qantas subsidiary has been a testing time during some fraught EA negotiations. Coordination between the three pilot unions during negotiations had been good and member meetings were well attended over two days. As a result of these member meetings the unions believed they had secured some concessions from the company that warranted an in-principle agreement.

Progress has slowed as differences in positions became more evident before drafting has even commenced, and the release of further information from the company detailing the main elements of the potential deal has resulted in a significant groundswell of opinion in opposition to the proposed deal. The pilot views have understandably been further enraged with the recent record profit announcement for Qantas.

AFAP membership has grown quickly with a 50% increase in membership over 12 months. In light of the high membership numbers and a keen cohort of member representatives, the pilot group are considering a motion to establish a Network Pilot Council. A first (informal) meeting held 9 June in Perth reviewed the position of the pilots towards the potential EA and began to address other ongoing pilot matters. Pearl

Progress in negotiations for a new EA has slowed in 2023. In late-2022, after several face-to-face meetings with management, it seemed some significant advances were being achieved in the negotiations.

Unfortunately, since then, Pearl management has resorted in recent months to simply exchanging emails with the AFAP, and has chosen to make only a limited number of concessions.

While only a few key items remain to resolve, one of those is in relation to significant pay increases in line with current market rates. With the recent news that the Award rate is increasing by 5.75%, the Company’s most recent salary offer looks even less inviting.

Pionair

Over the past 12-18 months, there have been a number of industrial concerns of various types raised by members at Pionair. The AFAP has noted a sharp decline in such concerns in recent months, but is concerned that the decline may have come about purely because of the resignation of a number of long-term employees from the company, rather than any significant improvements instigated by management.

Importantly though, it was announced recently that the company has been bought by a large overseas freight operator. The AFAP is hopeful that the purchase of the company may benefit members, in the form of better working conditions, and a significant increase in opportunities, resulting from proposed changes to the company’s overall fleet.

The purchase may also help to reinvigorate the stalled bargaining for a new enterprise agreement. Unfortunately the bargaining process that was occurring in the first half of 2022 came to a sharp halt as a result of the turn-over of Pilot representatives.

Skytrans

The AFAP had been hopeful that there would have been a start to the negotiations for an enterprise agreement already this year with Skytrans. That said, the AFAP is aware that any negotiations would not be straightforward.

The Company’s DH8 operations from Cairns and Brisbane are significantly different in nature to those of the C208 operations from Horn Island, and different provisions would need to be included in the one EA to cover those differences.

With the usual turnover of staff in general aviation, the AFAP has also lost at least one important Pilot representative from the Company so far in 2023, further hindering any plans to commence the bargaining process. Time will tell if more progress can be achieved in the second half of 2023.