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National Jet Systems, pilots wrangle over work conditions Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Geoffrey Thomas | December 14, 2007
THE long-running negotiations between National Jet Systems and its pilots - which could head off major disruptions to the extensive fly-in/fly-out resource industry charters and RPT services in four states - are poised on a knife edge.
At stake are the operations of 11 106-seat Boeing 717s operated for QantasLink and 11 70-seat BAe146s in Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland.
Those aircraft serve hundreds of resources companies, thousands of resource subcontractors in critical fly-in/fly-out operations and tens of thousands of passengers on RPT (regular public transport) services.
The airline's pilots are due to vote in January on a collective agreement that restores some conditions, including a CPI increase, but leaves others such as rostering protocols and promotional issues unresolved, according to the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
Another sticking point is understood to be that the agreement, while collective, will not be under the umbrella of the TWU and will be for five years, restricting pilot flexibility.
NJS CEO Peter Nottage said the airline and its pilots "are making good progress on a new employee collective agreement and the company is in close consultation with pilots ahead of January's formal vote on the proposed agreement".
"We have covered a lot of ground since the beginning of this matter and, consistent with our commitment to our pilots have dealt in good faith with their concerns and objectives," he added.
"Pilots also have responded in good faith and are working with the company to produce an outcome that is fair and equitable for all. We are confident that we will soon achieve a mutual agreement."
But any such mutual agreement will have taken a long time.
Over the past year more than 115 NJS pilots have joined the TWU in an attempt to sort out problems with individual contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements, or AWAs).
According to TWU airlines organiser Rick Burton, most of the pilots were unhappy with the AWAs and told NJS and the TWU that they wanted a collective TWU agreement.
More than a year ago 30 pilots contacted the government's Office of Workplace Services (OWS) about "serious breaches of their AWAs", according to the TWU.
The TWU maintained that the pilots were frustrated that the dispute had been allowed to drag on for so long.
In August, NJS pilots voted to empower the TWU to apply to take industrial action after NJS refused to negotiate a collective agreement for staff on AWAs. A major thrust of the pilots' demands were for CPI increases, rather than a flat 2 per cent offered at the time by the company.
An A-scale NJS 717 or BAe146 captain earns $131,000 while the new B-scale captains earn just $105,000 - less than Skippers Aviation and Network captains who fly 36-seat Dash 8s and 30-seat Brasilia prop-jets in Western Australia.
According to the TWU's Mr Burton the B-scale pilots' package failed the Work Choices fairness test.
In September, NJS's Mr Nottage addressed pilots' concerns and frustrations through the company's weekly Landings newsletter, promising to "redress the slow progress (of negotiations) and to work in good faith towards a mutually acceptable outcome".
He also warned pilots that the potential of industrial action could damage relationships with resource clients, who made up the majority of the airline's business.
However, in early October the TWU lodged an application in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for an industrial action secret ballot.
In the meantime, NJS settled before a scheduled October five-day court hearing over allegations that it underpaid 30 pilots.
According to Mr Burton, although NJS paid the CPI increases, the Work Choices Ombudsman is still reviewing prosecution.
Further charges of forcing two pilots to sign workplace agreements were still before the courts, he said.
In late October, the pilots voted to approve protected industrial action against NJS, and the TWU then had 30 days to initiate action that could range from "work to rule" limitations to a 48-hour stoppage. Mr Nottage again appealed to the pilots, saying that he was committed to a solution without industrial action and warned in a company letter that the "secret ballot application has caused a great deal of concern with our customers".
That appeal was heeded and the pilots only adopted a work to rule on their rostered days off. This apparently resulted in up to three QantasLink 717 flights being cancelled on the weekend of December 1-2.
Pilots said this action "fast tracked" the package that was now before them.
Mr Nottage, however, denied any suggestion that three flight cancellations in early December were part of a concerted industrial campaign. "Of the 350 weekly services we fly for QantasLink, there were disruptions to three services on the weekend of December 1-2 as a result of staff illness."
The Australian also understands that Rio Tinto - one of NJS's biggest customers - has warned the airline that no more contacts will be renewed till the issues with the pilots are finalised, although Rio Tinto was coy about this assertion. Rio Tinto has chartered a 70-seat EMB-170, which is stationed at Perth Airport, as a contingency against any industrial action.
A Rio Tinto spokesman said that "given the importance of the fly-in/fly-out and the need to get our people home, we have to protect against a disruption".
"In the event of the stoppage we also have other charter options available," he added.
For NJS and its arch-rivals, such as Skywest Airlines, the stakes are high in relation to fly-in/fly-out operations.
Rio Tinto alone recently announced a $30 billion plan to treble its iron ore production from the Pilbara region to 600 million tonnes by 2017.
The company has 11 operational mines, and 39 potential mining operations taking about 14.2 billion tonnes of iron ore.
BHP Billiton produced 100 million tonnes of iron ore in fiscal 2007.
It also has plans to treble its production to 300 million tonnes by 2015.
One resource customer has recently deserted NJS.
Newcrest Mining - which the company has held since 1996 - has terminated its contract.
Mr Nottage took the opportunity in late November to remind staff that "the loss serves to remind us of the highly competitive nature of business".