Hi guys,
For those of you starting GS tomorrow good luck and congrats!
Unfortunately, you are going to be asked to view and subsequently vote on a collective agreement (really just an AWA in disguise) within a very short space of time - not the easiest thing to consider when you are beginning a new job!
PLEASE discuss this thoroughly with the existing groups in the classrooms next to you who have already looked at the document and discussed the pros and cons to it.
You are being asked to sign an agreement that locks you in for FIVE years WITHOUT any guaranteed salary increase (not even a consideration for inflation). It also denies you the right to take any industrial action (strike) throughout this time if you are not happy with the conditions or the lack of pay increases.
You could also work OVER 1900 hours annually - crazy and totally unheard of in the airline industry. Virgin Atlantic cabin crew work a MAXIMUM of 900 hours annually as a comparison.
You guys are setting the benchmark for the future of ALL cabin crew at V Australia - please consider this very carefully. V Australia will be a great airline - how disappointing to begin it with unhappy and disengaged crew.
The pilots are also on the same agreement - very unfair to both the pilot and cabin crew groups alike.
Be careful that your concerns are not 'glossed over' by the people who present this latest document to you!
VOTE NO - the company needs to realise that NEGOTIATION is the way to set an agreement with your employees, not DICTATING terms and conditions!
Good luck guys!