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Old 27th Sep 2021, 10:15
  #42 (permalink)  
evilducky
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 94
Received 10 Likes on 7 Posts
This isn’t some skydive club on the weekend - this is an ASX company that at one point had a bigger market cap than Rex.

The award doesn’t care whether or not your flight is private, aerial work or charter. The award cares about the nature of your relationship. Are you employed? There are clear tests for this that other posts have identified. If the answer is yes, then you need to be paid the award.

There have been a bunch of pilots that have attempted to recover underpayments from the company in question through the legal system, including with union help. The fact that you haven’t heard about it in the media alludes to a common outcome: confidential settlements. If this was a genuine contract relationship you’d think the company would let at least one case play out in the courts as a test case so they could put it to bed.

Unfortunately employment law is a non-costs area - so if a pilot spends $20k in legal fees to recover a $20k underpayment, they don’t get awarded $40k at the end - they get $20k. Makes settlement very enticing for the pilots as well. Not their fault.

The company knows this. They know it’s difficult for pilots to enforce their rights. Particularly when those pilots are young, inexperienced and un-unionised. The union knows this too - I’d say they have an obligation to not send the lambs to the slaughter by advertising the job.
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