There have been a few mentions of 'Redundancy Payouts' in this and other threads so far. I want to make it very clear that those talking about Voluntary Redundancy and numbers like $200,000 are talking about
Cabin Crew and Engineers.
There is no offer of Voluntary Redundancy to any pilot and I think it might be a long time coming. Here's my take on the situation at the moment, as an interested bystander.
Emirates - Pilots accepted by Emirates
resign from Qantas, or
retire if they have more than 20 years service. Their 'entitlements' would be payment in lieu of any outstanding Annual Leave or Long Service Leave and they can transfer their superannuation out of the Qantas plan, like any worker could. No special provisions. No payout.
Qatar - Pilots accepted by Qatar take 3 years leave of absence. Their leave balances remain behind in Qantas. No payout at all. There is an expectation that they'll be coming back, but I think it would be safer view it as a one way ticket, given the scale of what is happening. After 3 years, if they find it is in their best interests to remain at Qatar, or somewhere else by then, they then would
resign [or retire if eligible] from Qantas and be paid out their leave balances. No redundancy payouts.
Virgin Australia - Well, if the above is any guide, once again QF pilots would have to
resign or retire to go to Virgin Australia. Once again, the only payment would be their leave balances.
It is understandable, given the comments here about redundancy payments made by and about other categories of workers, that you would express envy about QF pilots coming into
VB, or anywhere else, instead of other well qualified applicants if you thought they had just received a large redundancy payout. Now that you know the true situation, I hope you will see that they are just pilots on equal terms who are deciding on a career change.
Inside Flight Ops at Qantas, the current mantra is 'we hope to avoid compulsory redundancies'. This is really just code for 'we hope to frighten, cajole or persuade enough of you to leave of your own accord, so that we are spared the expense of paying you a redundancy payout'.
In Flight Ops, they are very big on sticks and very short on carrots.