Xenophon bill would outlaw foreign cabin crews on domestic Australian flights
July 29, 2011 – 7:54 pm, by Ben Sandilands
Senator Nick Xenophon says he will seek to introduce a private member’s bill that would prevent airlines using foreign based cabin crews on domestic flights in Australia.
The bill follows the ABC TV Lateline program on Wednesday which showed that Jetstar was working Thai based cabin crew provided by Tour East Thailand (which is 37% owned by Qantas) on 20 hour shifts to provide it with cut price labor on domestic flights.
If it becomes law such a bill would frustrate a substantial plank of the Qantas plan to use lower priced regionally based foreign Qantas controlled carriers to reduce its exposure to its obligations to Australian taxation, superannuation and labor laws.
This is the media release:
Independent Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon will introduce a Private Senator’s Bill that will force Australian airlines to provide the same flight and duty conditions for foreign crews as are currently given to Australian crews.
The move follows revelations that Jetstar’s Bangkok-based foreign crews regularly work on flights that travel from one Australian location to another, and that most passengers would believe are domestic flights.
Under their contracts, these crews also have no limit on the hours they could be expected to fly, and say they are regularly fatigued to a level that they believe puts passenger safety at risk.
“I don’t think a lot of people realise that the crew member on their flight from Brisbane to Cairns may actually be based in Bangkok, earning a base pay of less than $300 a month, and that they may have worked hours that Australian crews would not be allowed to,” Nick said.
The Bill would require Australian airlines to offer foreign-based crews the same flight and duty time limitations that are offered to Australian crews under their industrial agreements.
The Bill would also apply to international airlines in which an Australian airline owns more than a 20% stake.
“This is a basic issue of fairness and safety,” Nick said. “We shouldn’t have an underclass of cabin crews flying around Australia on Australian carriers.”
“In the event of an emergency, I believe passengers have a right to expect that their cabin crews are going to be alert enough to get the door open and the passengers out,” Nick said.
Senator Xenophon has also said he will take up the issue of the low wages foreign crew are paid while employed by Australian airlines.
“It’s not good enough for Jetstar to say that a base wage of $300 a month is good by Bangkok standards,” Nick said. “These workers are employed by an Australian airline, they are flying in Australia, and they deserve better.”
While the bill will be immediately associated with Asia based cabin crews, it would also prevent the use of crews based in the nearer Pacific island states, PNG and New Zealand, from which Qantas already operates a supposedly fully independent trans Tasman carrier that uses NZ pilots and cabin attendants in NZ registered jets which are falsely labelled as Qantas The Spirit of Australia.
Senator Xenophon was the instigator of the recent Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety standards, which while it was taking testimony and submissions, is widely credited with derailing a sham NZ based cadet pilot scheme in which Jetstar was taking the participants to NZ for the purpose of opening NZ bank accounts and signing contracts in which they would be paid as NZ employees, even though it did not bring the cadets up to a standard which qualified them to fly an airliner in NZ.
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Finally, maybe some common sense 