Angry pilots battle Jetstar: Court action and protests over new contracts
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer From: The Australian May 20, 2011 12:00AM
PILOT angst has hit new highs at low-cost carrier Jetstar over a new contract that group executive Bruce Buchanan insists is essential to the company's ability to grow.
The Jetstar Pilots Council has taken the unusual step of writing directly to all Qantas board members, while the Australian Federation of Air Pilots has launched Federal Court action and the Australian and International Pilots Association is taking the issue to Fair Work Australia today.
"We've prepared a brief on that and the previous contract and the behaviour of the company towards these cadet pilots," AIPA spokesman Richard Woodward said yesterday. "So we're going ahead with that meeting and we intend to follow up with some meetings with appropriate political people to reinforce the fact that we think they're circumventing Australian workplace laws."
AFAP executive director Terry O'Connell said the federation's claim related to a breach of the existing award "in three or four areas" and it would be seeking immediate relief at a Federal Court directions hearing on June 10.
Mr O'Connell said the union's intention was to get Jetstar management to rethink its position and employ pilots on the enterprise bargaining agreement to which it had been a willing party.
He said that agreement was supposed to herald a new era of co-operation and parties working together in collective sense.
"Unfortunately, it hasn't transpired -- on the basis of these latest actions," Mr O'Connell said.
The pilots are incensed by airline moves to put new hires of junior officers on a group contract outside the enterprise agreement. That guarantees employment for just 600 hours instead of the 800-plus Jetstar pilots generally work. AIPA says the contract allows the company to move new hires to any base in its network and could see them on standby for 12 days a month.
More than 300 pilots have emailed management expressing their alarm and raising fears about the impact of the anger and unrest on the carrier's safety culture and their sense of betrayal. The company's decision to sack pilot Joe Eakins for airing his grievances about the company in the media has made Jetstar pilots reluctant to speak publicly. But, behind the scenes, many are seething.
"I am honestly concerned that safety is not the focus in this company's management, but money and the managers' KPIs (key performance indicators)," said one veteran pilot. "As you must be aware, many aircraft accidents worldwide have been attributed to pilot error. The stress and anguish placed on pilots by this mismanagement will cause more errors within the pilot group and where or when these errors align to a deadly end I do not know, but it looks closer each day."
The letter to the board, as well as to Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and Jetstar Group boss Bruce Buchanan, accuses management of destroying trust with the pilots and raises questions about a wider agenda, which many pilots believe is to outsource the airline's operations overseas to reduce costs. The letter says that it has become abundantly clear that no amount of dialogue will alter management's plans.
"Despite well over 50 per cent of the Jetstar pilot group now negatively responding to your plan, it is clear to pilots that you intend to spend a great deal of money trying to win the opportunity to circumvent the collective agreement," it says.
Unsurprisingly, Jetstar rejects claims the new contracts are affecting safety and Mr Buchanan argued this week that the group would be severely hampered without the flexibility they allowed.
"I think primarily the union's concerned about whether they've got less industrial clout when the EBA comes up in 2013," Mr Buchanan said. "We make no apologies. The focus for us is about creating a profitable, successful business and it's tough, the airline game's tough."
Mr Buchanan said Jetstar was offering the new pilots 800 hours a year and, under the Modern Award, this meant they were classified as full-time. He said wages and conditions were similar to those in the EBA and paid a junior first officer flying 800 hours about $87,000.
He noted some low-cost carriers had a variable pay model so pilots were paid only for the hours they flew, but Jetstar had put in a floor of 600 hours a year.
"The pay structure is part fixed, part variable, so it's more weighted towards an incentive for productivity," he said.
"But it's still a full-time contract and the salary numbers are still very attractive."
Mr Buchanan argued that the new contract was an effective way of facilitating growth that allowed the company to move experienced pilots around the rest of the group and align with the contracts it had in other countries. It also provided a more productive contract for delivering growth in Australia.
He said command upgrades drove increases in pilot pay and Jetstar had delivered more of those in recent months than it had in the past few years.
The push by pilots or their unions to get every part of the Jetstar business on the same wages and conditions was "never going to happen".
"Our businesses serve different markets and you've got to come up with different business models which will actually show new growth so we can be profitable and successful," Mr Buchanan said. "And success is what creates job security and what creates growth. It's an active discussion that we need to keep having with the pilots."
Lies and damn lies. These contracts are for Australian-based positions and clearly written and offered as "Part Time". Sure its a tough gig, sell more muffins and pringles to give yourself another million dollars like you did last year. If he had any final sense of integrity, this has lost it for all.