Can anyone with an 'industrial relations expertise' confirm or deny a rumour I heard the other day; that being if you are made redundant whilst on LWOP, you forfeit your redundancy package?
If this is true, it would be a brave person to take LWOP from Q so as to fly with J*. If (perhaps when) Q start making people redundant, you would lose you entitlements.
Would be very handy for Q!!
Any one have a reference to the relevant legislation?
Cool names
My take on what I've heard/read, is that the most important is the specific details of the MOU.
Firstly there is nothing that I am aware of that prohibits an employer in offering LWOP arrangements. Likewise there is nothing that forces an employee to take up an offer.
From what I can gather from the various posts on the matter, a QF pilot will under the terms of the MOU remain employed by QF during the LWOP period up until a "sunset" date (ie up to 3 years). After that sunset date the terms of the MOU cease to exist.
The question is - can QF in that 3 year period make you redundant? Firstly, by definition redundancy is for a position, not a person. It might seem like semantics, but it is important in such a scenario.
An employer can in the event of "changes to the operational requirements" make a genuine redundancy. But a genuine redundancy does not occur if the employee can be redeployed within the business (in this scenario, very unlikely) or within an associated entity of the employer (mmm....who could that be??)
There is the possibility that QF could as a result of 'operational requirements' (restructure etc) make a number of pilot positions redundant. If all of those positions were previously filled by pilots on LWOP who are now under an MOU flying for J*, the positions may not fall within the definition of genuine redundnacy because those very pilots are working within an associated entity".
The scenario that gets really interesting is if lets say a pilot takes 3 years LWOP, does not accept an upgrade etc, and then seeks to return to QF, however the position this pilot previously occupied was made "redundant". QF could redeploy to an associated entity and as I understand it that pilot would still be employed by by an associated entity.
It's pretty complex to try and explain but that's my pennies worth and open to others views if they have more details on the arrangement on offer.