Originally Posted by
gordonfvckingramsay
Karma will be a bitch for airlines if this is applied as it appears it will be. Years of the war on staff cannot go unpunished. Colleagues I have spoken to already have suggested only large sums of money will get them to work on a public holiday.
If you look at all the others professions who work public holidays, police, nurses, hospital staff, emergency services, mining, retail, aged care etc there are a lot of people needed on public holidays who would also like to get the day off. I can’t imagine there’s too many workers in other industries willing to volunteer to give up every holiday to help out their boss.
At risk of society shutting down the government will have to step in and ensure that employers have the right to force employees in those industries to work, but as
quoted in this AFR article:
An employer could still require the employee to work on a public holiday if the employee’s refusal was unreasonable given the nature of the work, reasonable employer expectations, the type of employment and the level of pay.
All an employer has to do is say “you agreed to work in aviation therefore it’s expected you work holidays” and your right to opt out is over. However they may be forced to institute a mandatory penalty payment for working on a holiday.
I don’t think this ruling will ensure pilots and airline employees a guaranteed Christmas off every year. But you may get a bit more money in the bank account for working on the day.