zzoott
15th Aug 2007, 12:52
Reproduced wiyhour comment
Proposed Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement – August 2007
.
Remuneration: Captains and First Officers Bonus Payments
Cash payment on lodgement (“sign-on bonus”). Effective the first pay period after lodgement of this Agreement, a cash payment of $18,783.20 for each Captain and 11,082.15 for each First Officer will be paid.
This is a sign-on bonus and is based on 900 credit hours multiplied by 9.09% at the current applicable hourly rate for Captains and First Officers. 9.09% is 3% compounded over 2 years.
The sign-on bonus will be applicable to all short haul flight crew members employed on 1 September 2007.
Company Incentive Payments (“at-risk bonus”)
A performance cash incentive will be implemented in relation to each financial year commencing from
the 2007/2008 financial year.
The cash incentive for both Captains and First Officers will be based on 6% of actual credit hours for the applicable financial year at the appropriate hourly rate and rate applicable to the Qantas Group Executive Performance Cash Plan. For example, assuming the ‘Cash Plan’ rate is paid at 100% for the 2007/2008 financial year, a 6% bonus for 900 credit hours equates to ~$13,100 for Captains and
~$8,000 for First Officers.
The Company Incentive Payments will not be date-limited by the nominal expiry date of the Proposed Agreement. The payments will continue past the expiry date of this Workplace Agreement and until a new Agreement is made.
Remuneration: Captains
Captain Base Rate Increases
For Captains there will be five increases, each of 3%, to the hourly rate paid under this Agreement.
These increases take effect from:
1 September 2007;
1 September 2008;
1 September 2009;
1 September 2010; and
1 September 2011.
Captain Incremental Pay Scale
Effective 1 September 2007, an incremental pay scale for Captains will be introduced based on years in rank. The anniversary date for years in rank will be the date a flight crew member is cleared to the line as a Captain.
Year 1 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 7.5%.
Year 2 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 5.0%.
Year 3 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 2.5%.
All current Captains and all future Captains commencing or allocated training in the 2007/2008 training year will be paid at the Year 4 rate. The structure has been designed to ensure that future flight crew members bidding for Captain B737 promotions do so with full knowledge of the applicable rates of pay.
This table below includes the hourly rate increases. The current hourly rate is $229.60.
Years in Rank Hourly
Rate Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
1-Sep-07 $236.48
1-Sep-08 $225.31 $231.40 $237.49 $243.58
1-Sep-09 $232.07 $238.34 $244.61 $250.89
1-Sep-10 $239.03 $245.49 $251.95 $258.41
1-Sep-11 $246.20 $252.86 $259.51 $266.16
Captain Daily Travel Allowance
Commencing 1 September 2007, Daily Travel Allowance (DTA) for Captains will be calculated in accordance with Table 3 of the ATO reasonable travel and meal allowance expense amounts and amended annually as per current practice.
For the year commencing 1 September 2007, this represents an increase in DTA for Captains of 87
cents from $4.94 to $5.81 per hour Time Away From Base (TAFB). This is tax free money (on overnights) and based on average TAFB figures equates to approximately $1860 per year. To compare this to equivalent grossed-up salary, it would represent $3,470 in pre tax dollars, so would be
equivalent to a pay increase of 1.68%.
Remuneration: First Officers
First Officer Incremental Pay Scale
Effective 1 September 2007, an incremental pay scale for First Officers will be introduced based on years in rank. The anniversary date for years in rank will be the date a flight crew member is cleared to the line as a First Officer.
There will be a phase-in period for the introduction of the new scale as below.
Year 1 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 1 Captain (from 1 September 2007).
Year 2 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 2 Captain (from 1 September 2008).
Year 3 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 3 Captain (from 1 September 2009).
Year 4 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 4 Captain (from 1 September 2010).
A comparison of hourly rates below shows the total rate rise over the term of the Agreement of 23.48%. The average increase backdated to the expiry of Short Haul EBA 5 of 31 August 2005 is 3.35% per year. In the table below, the right hand column represents the increase in remuneration for both current and new First Officers. By 1 September 2010, all current First Officers will be on 64% of Captain’s pay. These figures do not include the 6% annual Company Incentive Payments.
The current hourly rate for First Officers is $135.46.
Hourly Years in Rank %
Rate Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Rate Rise
01-Sep-07 $140.00 $140.00 $140.00 $140.00 3.35%
01-Sep-08 $144.20 $148.10 $148.10 $148.10 5.78%
01-Sep-09 $148.52 $152.54 $156.55 $156.55 5.71%
01-Sep-10 $152.98 $157.11 $161.25 $165.38 5.64%
01-Sep-11 $157.57 $161.83 $166.09 $170.34 3.00%
TOTAL over 5 years 23.48%
AVERAGE over 7 years 3.35%
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS
Minimum Guarantee Hours
The Minimum Guarantee Hours will be increased from 55 hours per month to 58 hours per month.
Superannuation
The Qantas Superannuation Trust Deed for short haul flight crew will be amended to increase the current 55 hours per month used to calculate superannuation benefits and contributions to 58 hours per month. This improvement keeps superannuation benefits and contributions closely in line with a benchmark 3% from expiry of the previous agreement.
The change will take place only in the Trust Deed, which is a separate document and therefore will not form part of the Proposed Agreement.
Rostering Manual
The Rostering Manual will be included as an Appendix in the new Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement 2007. This means that any future changes will require a vote of the pilots, as will any changes to an Agreement under WorkChoices legislation.
NO CHANGE TO THE FOLLOWING:
Security (5 Year Term)
NO CHANGE
Due to possible exposure presented by certain provisions in the new WorkChoices legislation, AIPA’s view (based on legal advice and also member feedback) was that the longest term available (which is 5 years) would provide the best security available for short haul flight crew in any new agreement.
Sick Leave
NO CHANGE
The new sick leave entitlements (referred to as “personal leave” in the Proposed Agreement) will exist in conjunction with the old arrangements (referred to as “sick leave” in the Proposed Agreement). The new entitlements will be used first and once they have been exhausted, the old rules will apply.
Upon lodgement of the Proposed Agreement, based on the time remaining until the anniversary of a flight crew member’s date of joining, a pro-rata amount of old sick leave will be converted into personal leave (new sick leave). Flight crew members will then accumulate a further 76 duty hours of personal leave every year on the anniversary date of joining. This is based on the minimum 10 days off per year required under the WorkChoices legislation where one day equals 7.6 hours (38 hour week).
Additionally, on the anniversary date of joining, flight crew will receive 28 duty hours of URTI leave to use every year (which does not accumulate). This provision is additional to the legal minimum but requires a medical certificate to be provided on each occasion. Flight crew can still access 3 days of non-URTI personal leave without a medical certificate. Between lodgement of the Proposed Agreement and a flight crew member’s first anniversary of date of joining, old URTI leave rules apply.
Personal and URTI leave is deducted in duty hours but paid in credit hours. For example, a day trip of 10 duty hours that is worth 6 credit hours will be paid as 6 credit hours but 10 duty hours will be deducted from the flight crew member’s accrued bank of personal leave (or 28 hours of annual URTI leave).
On average, the credit hour to duty hour ratio is approximately 64% (based on an average 5 credit hours to 7h 47m duty per day). Therefore, 76 duty hours is equivalent on average to 48.43 credit hours. The old sick leave rules provide 15 days a year at 3 credit hours per day and that equates to 45 credit hours per year. Therefore, based on current average ratios of duty to credit, the proposed system represents an increase in available personal leave. The worst patterns to miss due to illness
are the high duty/low credit hour patterns (long transits) but on average the new provisions constitute an increase in total available personal leave, and a significant improvement in the accessibility of those personal leave benefits.
The new personal leave provisions achieve AIPA’s aim of providing flight crew the ability to recoup all lost pay when sick rather than a maximum of 3 hours a day. This should also alleviate the situation for those who are not feeling 100% fit – flight crew can elect not to go flying and possibly infecting other crew members without fear of losing pay. The other advantage is that flight crew will not need to work an extra day or two to restore their individual pay to its original amount.
Loss of Licence
NO CHANGE
There is an increase in the capital benefit by 20% and the tapering commences from 55 to 60 rather than 50 to 60. An increase of 10% applied on 1 January 2005 and a further increase of 10% applied on 1 January 2006. There has since been an inflationary increase on 1 January 2007. The benefit from 1 January 2007 is $719,692.00 to age 54. Short haul flight crew are already entitled to this
increase as it was negotiated in Long Haul EBA 7. Its inclusion in the Proposed Agreement is to reflect
current practice.
Salary Sacrifice
NO CHANGE
Clauses pertaining to salary sacrifice will be removed and replaced with a general clause allowing salary sacrifice for any items available under Company Policy (including motor vehicles, laptop computers and superannuation). The Company will also introduce the ability to salary sacrifice a motor vehicle over the luxury limit for Captains only.
Parental Leave
NO CHANGE
Improved maternity leave provisions including 10 weeks paid maternity leave and 1 week paid paternity leave.
Open Time Pattern Drop
NO CHANGE
AIPA and the Company will trial a facility whereby flight crew will be able to drop trips into Open Time.
If the trip is awarded to another flight crew member then the person dropping the trip will not need to crew it. But if it remains un-crewed then the original crew member will have the pattern returned to them.
Once the trial has successfully been completed, this procedure will be implemented. The trial is required to determine whether or not there are any unforseen problems and to conduct any fine tuning needed to ensure an effective system is implemented.
Re-employment after Medical Termination
NO CHANGE
Qantas will implement a process so that “A” list flight crew members who have their licence cancelled on medical grounds but who subsequently re-qualify can be re-employed within 4 years at the Company’s discretion.
Note that this does not apply to flight crew members who have transferred from Long Haul. They are subject to similar medical re-employment provisions included in the Long Haul Certified Agreement (refer Long Haul EBA7 LOA 102A).
Training Captains and TFOs
NO CHANGE
Training Captains Category A/B whose actual credited hours for the bid period are higher than the current top-up provisions will be paid their actual credited hours.
There will be a facility implemented that will allow Training Captains Category A/B to rotate back to the line for a maximum of 3 months per year.
Training Captains Category A/B and D and TFOs will have their training allowance increased from 240 hours per year to 276 hours per year (to reflect the increase in optimum divisor). Top-up amounts will AIPA Information Pack – Proposed Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement – August 2007 – Page 7ഊbe consequently based on 78 hours rather than the current 75 hours. This effectively increases their minimum guarantee pay by three hours per month.
Productivity Initiatives
NO CHANGE
The optimum hours for each bid period will be increased from 75 to 78 for planning purposes and the annual planned hours cap will be raised from 900 to 950. This represents a target increase of 36 credit hours per year.
Passive training credits will be introduced for 3 recurrent simulators, 1 emergency procedures and 1 security day per year. This means that they will not be included in the roster build but will still be paid as before.
For example, currently a simulator credit is included in the build such that if the divisor is 75 hours a flight crew member would be planned for only 71 hours of flying because the 4 hour simulator credit would be included. Using passive training credits an individual will be planned for a full 75 hours of flying and the 4 hour simulator credit would be additional credit.
In the case where more than one training duty is planned for a bid period, only one of those training credits will be treated passively. This is to prevent the situation occurring whereby a large number of passive duties in one particular bid period would create an overload of duty for that bid period.
Passive training credits represent a target increase of 20 hours per year (five duties at 4 hours per duty). Added to the target increase in divisor of 36 hours per year, the Proposed Agreement aims to increase hours of short haul flight crew by 56 hours per year.
Based on the current optimum of 900 credit hours per year (75 hours per month), the new optimum will be 956 credit hours per year including consideration of passive training credits. This represents an increase in productivity of 6.2%. Note however, that since flight crew are paid by the hour and not by salary, it does not represent a saving to the Company of 6.2%. It does, however, represent a reduction
in flight crew establishment of 6.2%. The Company savings come from the overheads associated with flight crew establishment.
It is important to note that these are planning targets only. Actual achieved credit hours will continue to vary.
Short of Time Flight Crew
NO CHANGE
Flight crew will not be considered “short of time” due to trip swapping. The reason for this is that the short of time provisions were never designed to accommodate the situation where a flight crew member intentionally seeks to become short of time by trip swapping to lose hours.
Future Flight Deck Laptop Applications
NO CHANGE
There will be no further pay claim in relation to the possible introduction and use of Electronic Flight Bags. However, payment for any necessary training will still apply if training is required.
Reserve Coverage
NO CHANGE
Due to changes in relative base sizes and historic reserve usage in individual bases, the existing base reserve coverage limits will change as per the following table:
Existing Reserve Coverage Proposed Reserve Coverage
MEL 6 MEL 5
SYD 3 SYD 4
BNE 3 BNE 3
Historically, MEL was the main base and a significant majority of crew were based there. As the size of both SYD and BNE bases have grown the need for a more even distribution of reserve coverage has grown. There has not been an increase in total reserve coverage, merely re-arrangement of the base reserve limits.
28 Day Roster Period/Fortnightly Pay
NO CHANGE
If the Company introduces 28 day bid periods then it is an agreed condition that short haul flight crew will move to a fortnightly pay system. Minimum days off (X days) and BL days will pro-rated so that there is no reduction in annual entitlements, and other monthly quotas will be pro-rated appropriately to match 28 day bid periods.
There is no guarantee that 28 day bid periods will ever be introduced. There is an indicated desire from some departments within the Company to maintain monthly rostering. Other departments, however, would see a benefit in moving to 28 day bid periods. In order to accommodate the possible introduction of 28 day bid periods, the provision has been included in the Proposed Agreement.
Fortnightly (or at least bi-monthly) pay was an AIPA request during these negotiations. It has been made clear, however, that under the current rostering and pay systems, fortnightly pay is very difficult to achieve under monthly rostering.
SUMMARY
Security, superannuation and remuneration were the goals of the AIPA Short Haul Negotiating Team. Security has been achieved by way of a five year term; superannuation is protected; and remuneration will be maintained at an equivalent of 3% per year when considered as a total package.
Some other important points to consider in relation to the structure of the Proposed Agreement:
• Those who are retiring or leaving the aircraft in the near future will still receive the sign-on bonus. This is an important reward for the patience and hard work that our members have demonstrated during the two years of negotiations without a pay rise.
• The hugely unpopular ‘B-scale’ is now almost totally removed, and First Officers will receive significant remuneration improvements over the term of this Agreement. We consider this an important step in righting a past wrong.
• Short haul pilots will no longer suffer financial penalty when accessing sick leave, and importantly, they will no longer be tempted to consider financial implications when assessing their fitness to fly.
• The Executive Bonus Scheme is no longer date-limited. It will remain in place past the nominal expiry date of the Agreement in the same way the hourly rate does.
• The Rostering Manual will form part of the new Agreement.
Proposed Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement – August 2007
.
Remuneration: Captains and First Officers Bonus Payments
Cash payment on lodgement (“sign-on bonus”). Effective the first pay period after lodgement of this Agreement, a cash payment of $18,783.20 for each Captain and 11,082.15 for each First Officer will be paid.
This is a sign-on bonus and is based on 900 credit hours multiplied by 9.09% at the current applicable hourly rate for Captains and First Officers. 9.09% is 3% compounded over 2 years.
The sign-on bonus will be applicable to all short haul flight crew members employed on 1 September 2007.
Company Incentive Payments (“at-risk bonus”)
A performance cash incentive will be implemented in relation to each financial year commencing from
the 2007/2008 financial year.
The cash incentive for both Captains and First Officers will be based on 6% of actual credit hours for the applicable financial year at the appropriate hourly rate and rate applicable to the Qantas Group Executive Performance Cash Plan. For example, assuming the ‘Cash Plan’ rate is paid at 100% for the 2007/2008 financial year, a 6% bonus for 900 credit hours equates to ~$13,100 for Captains and
~$8,000 for First Officers.
The Company Incentive Payments will not be date-limited by the nominal expiry date of the Proposed Agreement. The payments will continue past the expiry date of this Workplace Agreement and until a new Agreement is made.
Remuneration: Captains
Captain Base Rate Increases
For Captains there will be five increases, each of 3%, to the hourly rate paid under this Agreement.
These increases take effect from:
1 September 2007;
1 September 2008;
1 September 2009;
1 September 2010; and
1 September 2011.
Captain Incremental Pay Scale
Effective 1 September 2007, an incremental pay scale for Captains will be introduced based on years in rank. The anniversary date for years in rank will be the date a flight crew member is cleared to the line as a Captain.
Year 1 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 7.5%.
Year 2 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 5.0%.
Year 3 in rank will be based on Year 4 less 2.5%.
All current Captains and all future Captains commencing or allocated training in the 2007/2008 training year will be paid at the Year 4 rate. The structure has been designed to ensure that future flight crew members bidding for Captain B737 promotions do so with full knowledge of the applicable rates of pay.
This table below includes the hourly rate increases. The current hourly rate is $229.60.
Years in Rank Hourly
Rate Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
1-Sep-07 $236.48
1-Sep-08 $225.31 $231.40 $237.49 $243.58
1-Sep-09 $232.07 $238.34 $244.61 $250.89
1-Sep-10 $239.03 $245.49 $251.95 $258.41
1-Sep-11 $246.20 $252.86 $259.51 $266.16
Captain Daily Travel Allowance
Commencing 1 September 2007, Daily Travel Allowance (DTA) for Captains will be calculated in accordance with Table 3 of the ATO reasonable travel and meal allowance expense amounts and amended annually as per current practice.
For the year commencing 1 September 2007, this represents an increase in DTA for Captains of 87
cents from $4.94 to $5.81 per hour Time Away From Base (TAFB). This is tax free money (on overnights) and based on average TAFB figures equates to approximately $1860 per year. To compare this to equivalent grossed-up salary, it would represent $3,470 in pre tax dollars, so would be
equivalent to a pay increase of 1.68%.
Remuneration: First Officers
First Officer Incremental Pay Scale
Effective 1 September 2007, an incremental pay scale for First Officers will be introduced based on years in rank. The anniversary date for years in rank will be the date a flight crew member is cleared to the line as a First Officer.
There will be a phase-in period for the introduction of the new scale as below.
Year 1 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 1 Captain (from 1 September 2007).
Year 2 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 2 Captain (from 1 September 2008).
Year 3 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 3 Captain (from 1 September 2009).
Year 4 in rank will be based on 64% of Year 4 Captain (from 1 September 2010).
A comparison of hourly rates below shows the total rate rise over the term of the Agreement of 23.48%. The average increase backdated to the expiry of Short Haul EBA 5 of 31 August 2005 is 3.35% per year. In the table below, the right hand column represents the increase in remuneration for both current and new First Officers. By 1 September 2010, all current First Officers will be on 64% of Captain’s pay. These figures do not include the 6% annual Company Incentive Payments.
The current hourly rate for First Officers is $135.46.
Hourly Years in Rank %
Rate Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Rate Rise
01-Sep-07 $140.00 $140.00 $140.00 $140.00 3.35%
01-Sep-08 $144.20 $148.10 $148.10 $148.10 5.78%
01-Sep-09 $148.52 $152.54 $156.55 $156.55 5.71%
01-Sep-10 $152.98 $157.11 $161.25 $165.38 5.64%
01-Sep-11 $157.57 $161.83 $166.09 $170.34 3.00%
TOTAL over 5 years 23.48%
AVERAGE over 7 years 3.35%
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS
Minimum Guarantee Hours
The Minimum Guarantee Hours will be increased from 55 hours per month to 58 hours per month.
Superannuation
The Qantas Superannuation Trust Deed for short haul flight crew will be amended to increase the current 55 hours per month used to calculate superannuation benefits and contributions to 58 hours per month. This improvement keeps superannuation benefits and contributions closely in line with a benchmark 3% from expiry of the previous agreement.
The change will take place only in the Trust Deed, which is a separate document and therefore will not form part of the Proposed Agreement.
Rostering Manual
The Rostering Manual will be included as an Appendix in the new Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement 2007. This means that any future changes will require a vote of the pilots, as will any changes to an Agreement under WorkChoices legislation.
NO CHANGE TO THE FOLLOWING:
Security (5 Year Term)
NO CHANGE
Due to possible exposure presented by certain provisions in the new WorkChoices legislation, AIPA’s view (based on legal advice and also member feedback) was that the longest term available (which is 5 years) would provide the best security available for short haul flight crew in any new agreement.
Sick Leave
NO CHANGE
The new sick leave entitlements (referred to as “personal leave” in the Proposed Agreement) will exist in conjunction with the old arrangements (referred to as “sick leave” in the Proposed Agreement). The new entitlements will be used first and once they have been exhausted, the old rules will apply.
Upon lodgement of the Proposed Agreement, based on the time remaining until the anniversary of a flight crew member’s date of joining, a pro-rata amount of old sick leave will be converted into personal leave (new sick leave). Flight crew members will then accumulate a further 76 duty hours of personal leave every year on the anniversary date of joining. This is based on the minimum 10 days off per year required under the WorkChoices legislation where one day equals 7.6 hours (38 hour week).
Additionally, on the anniversary date of joining, flight crew will receive 28 duty hours of URTI leave to use every year (which does not accumulate). This provision is additional to the legal minimum but requires a medical certificate to be provided on each occasion. Flight crew can still access 3 days of non-URTI personal leave without a medical certificate. Between lodgement of the Proposed Agreement and a flight crew member’s first anniversary of date of joining, old URTI leave rules apply.
Personal and URTI leave is deducted in duty hours but paid in credit hours. For example, a day trip of 10 duty hours that is worth 6 credit hours will be paid as 6 credit hours but 10 duty hours will be deducted from the flight crew member’s accrued bank of personal leave (or 28 hours of annual URTI leave).
On average, the credit hour to duty hour ratio is approximately 64% (based on an average 5 credit hours to 7h 47m duty per day). Therefore, 76 duty hours is equivalent on average to 48.43 credit hours. The old sick leave rules provide 15 days a year at 3 credit hours per day and that equates to 45 credit hours per year. Therefore, based on current average ratios of duty to credit, the proposed system represents an increase in available personal leave. The worst patterns to miss due to illness
are the high duty/low credit hour patterns (long transits) but on average the new provisions constitute an increase in total available personal leave, and a significant improvement in the accessibility of those personal leave benefits.
The new personal leave provisions achieve AIPA’s aim of providing flight crew the ability to recoup all lost pay when sick rather than a maximum of 3 hours a day. This should also alleviate the situation for those who are not feeling 100% fit – flight crew can elect not to go flying and possibly infecting other crew members without fear of losing pay. The other advantage is that flight crew will not need to work an extra day or two to restore their individual pay to its original amount.
Loss of Licence
NO CHANGE
There is an increase in the capital benefit by 20% and the tapering commences from 55 to 60 rather than 50 to 60. An increase of 10% applied on 1 January 2005 and a further increase of 10% applied on 1 January 2006. There has since been an inflationary increase on 1 January 2007. The benefit from 1 January 2007 is $719,692.00 to age 54. Short haul flight crew are already entitled to this
increase as it was negotiated in Long Haul EBA 7. Its inclusion in the Proposed Agreement is to reflect
current practice.
Salary Sacrifice
NO CHANGE
Clauses pertaining to salary sacrifice will be removed and replaced with a general clause allowing salary sacrifice for any items available under Company Policy (including motor vehicles, laptop computers and superannuation). The Company will also introduce the ability to salary sacrifice a motor vehicle over the luxury limit for Captains only.
Parental Leave
NO CHANGE
Improved maternity leave provisions including 10 weeks paid maternity leave and 1 week paid paternity leave.
Open Time Pattern Drop
NO CHANGE
AIPA and the Company will trial a facility whereby flight crew will be able to drop trips into Open Time.
If the trip is awarded to another flight crew member then the person dropping the trip will not need to crew it. But if it remains un-crewed then the original crew member will have the pattern returned to them.
Once the trial has successfully been completed, this procedure will be implemented. The trial is required to determine whether or not there are any unforseen problems and to conduct any fine tuning needed to ensure an effective system is implemented.
Re-employment after Medical Termination
NO CHANGE
Qantas will implement a process so that “A” list flight crew members who have their licence cancelled on medical grounds but who subsequently re-qualify can be re-employed within 4 years at the Company’s discretion.
Note that this does not apply to flight crew members who have transferred from Long Haul. They are subject to similar medical re-employment provisions included in the Long Haul Certified Agreement (refer Long Haul EBA7 LOA 102A).
Training Captains and TFOs
NO CHANGE
Training Captains Category A/B whose actual credited hours for the bid period are higher than the current top-up provisions will be paid their actual credited hours.
There will be a facility implemented that will allow Training Captains Category A/B to rotate back to the line for a maximum of 3 months per year.
Training Captains Category A/B and D and TFOs will have their training allowance increased from 240 hours per year to 276 hours per year (to reflect the increase in optimum divisor). Top-up amounts will AIPA Information Pack – Proposed Qantas Flight Crew (Short Haul) Workplace Agreement – August 2007 – Page 7ഊbe consequently based on 78 hours rather than the current 75 hours. This effectively increases their minimum guarantee pay by three hours per month.
Productivity Initiatives
NO CHANGE
The optimum hours for each bid period will be increased from 75 to 78 for planning purposes and the annual planned hours cap will be raised from 900 to 950. This represents a target increase of 36 credit hours per year.
Passive training credits will be introduced for 3 recurrent simulators, 1 emergency procedures and 1 security day per year. This means that they will not be included in the roster build but will still be paid as before.
For example, currently a simulator credit is included in the build such that if the divisor is 75 hours a flight crew member would be planned for only 71 hours of flying because the 4 hour simulator credit would be included. Using passive training credits an individual will be planned for a full 75 hours of flying and the 4 hour simulator credit would be additional credit.
In the case where more than one training duty is planned for a bid period, only one of those training credits will be treated passively. This is to prevent the situation occurring whereby a large number of passive duties in one particular bid period would create an overload of duty for that bid period.
Passive training credits represent a target increase of 20 hours per year (five duties at 4 hours per duty). Added to the target increase in divisor of 36 hours per year, the Proposed Agreement aims to increase hours of short haul flight crew by 56 hours per year.
Based on the current optimum of 900 credit hours per year (75 hours per month), the new optimum will be 956 credit hours per year including consideration of passive training credits. This represents an increase in productivity of 6.2%. Note however, that since flight crew are paid by the hour and not by salary, it does not represent a saving to the Company of 6.2%. It does, however, represent a reduction
in flight crew establishment of 6.2%. The Company savings come from the overheads associated with flight crew establishment.
It is important to note that these are planning targets only. Actual achieved credit hours will continue to vary.
Short of Time Flight Crew
NO CHANGE
Flight crew will not be considered “short of time” due to trip swapping. The reason for this is that the short of time provisions were never designed to accommodate the situation where a flight crew member intentionally seeks to become short of time by trip swapping to lose hours.
Future Flight Deck Laptop Applications
NO CHANGE
There will be no further pay claim in relation to the possible introduction and use of Electronic Flight Bags. However, payment for any necessary training will still apply if training is required.
Reserve Coverage
NO CHANGE
Due to changes in relative base sizes and historic reserve usage in individual bases, the existing base reserve coverage limits will change as per the following table:
Existing Reserve Coverage Proposed Reserve Coverage
MEL 6 MEL 5
SYD 3 SYD 4
BNE 3 BNE 3
Historically, MEL was the main base and a significant majority of crew were based there. As the size of both SYD and BNE bases have grown the need for a more even distribution of reserve coverage has grown. There has not been an increase in total reserve coverage, merely re-arrangement of the base reserve limits.
28 Day Roster Period/Fortnightly Pay
NO CHANGE
If the Company introduces 28 day bid periods then it is an agreed condition that short haul flight crew will move to a fortnightly pay system. Minimum days off (X days) and BL days will pro-rated so that there is no reduction in annual entitlements, and other monthly quotas will be pro-rated appropriately to match 28 day bid periods.
There is no guarantee that 28 day bid periods will ever be introduced. There is an indicated desire from some departments within the Company to maintain monthly rostering. Other departments, however, would see a benefit in moving to 28 day bid periods. In order to accommodate the possible introduction of 28 day bid periods, the provision has been included in the Proposed Agreement.
Fortnightly (or at least bi-monthly) pay was an AIPA request during these negotiations. It has been made clear, however, that under the current rostering and pay systems, fortnightly pay is very difficult to achieve under monthly rostering.
SUMMARY
Security, superannuation and remuneration were the goals of the AIPA Short Haul Negotiating Team. Security has been achieved by way of a five year term; superannuation is protected; and remuneration will be maintained at an equivalent of 3% per year when considered as a total package.
Some other important points to consider in relation to the structure of the Proposed Agreement:
• Those who are retiring or leaving the aircraft in the near future will still receive the sign-on bonus. This is an important reward for the patience and hard work that our members have demonstrated during the two years of negotiations without a pay rise.
• The hugely unpopular ‘B-scale’ is now almost totally removed, and First Officers will receive significant remuneration improvements over the term of this Agreement. We consider this an important step in righting a past wrong.
• Short haul pilots will no longer suffer financial penalty when accessing sick leave, and importantly, they will no longer be tempted to consider financial implications when assessing their fitness to fly.
• The Executive Bonus Scheme is no longer date-limited. It will remain in place past the nominal expiry date of the Agreement in the same way the hourly rate does.
• The Rostering Manual will form part of the new Agreement.