AS A VERY LAST RESORT
5 October 2004
Attention all Qantas Long Haul Flight Attendants
STRIKES & STRIKE BREAKERS
Crew may have heard all sorts of rumours about strike action and Qantas training strike breakers. The FAAA has set out the facts below:
• Crew cannot be sacked or demoted for taking protected industrial action (going on strike).
• Qantas cannot sack their current cabin crew workforce and replace them with a new one.
• Qantas have said that they have contingency plans in place and the FAAA is aware that they are training 170 crew to work up to 3 months on a fixed term contract.
• Qantas employees have contacted the FAAA to advise us of Qantas calling for volunteers from within the company to under go emergency procedures training.
• 170 contract workers and some management volunteers will not lessen the effectiveness of any strike action that long haul cabin crew decide to take.
The FAAA believes that strike action should always be the last resort. We will be negotiating with the company right up until December in an effort to reach agreement on the things that cabin crew have told us are important such as job security and a decent wage increase.
Further there are a number of types of protected industrial action that cabin crew can take and going on strike is only one of them. If industrial action is necessary the FAAA will direct the most effective industrial action in the circumstances.
Written by Matt Warburton – National Industrial Officer authorised by
Michael Mijatov - Secretary International Division
46 Section 170MU(1) prohibits employers from dismissing employees or otherwise acting to their prejudice for engaging in protected action:
‘(1) An employer must not:
(a) dismiss an employee, injure an employee in his or her employment or alter the position of an employee to the employee’s prejudice; or
(b) threaten to dismiss an employee, injure an employee in his or her employment or alter the position of an employee to the employee’s prejudice;
wholly or partly because the employee is proposing to engage, is engaging, or has engaged in protected action.’