Network EBA
Skytrans advertising for A320 Captains and FOs for amongst other locations, a Perth base.
Interesting times.
Interesting times.
The following 2 users liked this post by brokenagain:
From today’s Worst Oz:
Qantas-owned Network Aviation and the union representing hundreds of WA FIFO pilots are locked in for talks to end an 18-month long bitter pay feud and disruptive strike action.
In a win for Network, the Fair Work Commission on Friday issued an intractable bargaining declaration on the grounds the dispute had reached an impasse.
The airline and the Australian Federation of Air Pilots — which is calling for the same pay as members’ Qantas counterparts — will start a 13-day negotiating period to hash out an agreement.
As a result, pilots have withdrawn planned strike action for Friday and Monday, following a day of strikes on Thursday.
Negotiations are set to end on March 28 but could be extended by the FWC if the pair can’t reach an agreement.
Qantas-owned Network Aviation and the union representing hundreds of WA FIFO pilots are locked in for talks to end an 18-month long bitter pay feud and disruptive strike action.
In a win for Network, the Fair Work Commission on Friday issued an intractable bargaining declaration on the grounds the dispute had reached an impasse.
The airline and the Australian Federation of Air Pilots — which is calling for the same pay as members’ Qantas counterparts — will start a 13-day negotiating period to hash out an agreement.
As a result, pilots have withdrawn planned strike action for Friday and Monday, following a day of strikes on Thursday.
Negotiations are set to end on March 28 but could be extended by the FWC if the pair can’t reach an agreement.
Intractable bargaining declared but we are going to "talk about it" for another 2 weeks, what a F***'ing joke this has become. First thing the company comes out with is "We have made our position clear that we cannot increase the overall cost of the deal" what's the point of another talk NOTHING HAS CHANGED ! I feel like I'm in a bad recurring nightmare.
The following 3 users liked this post by LivingtheDream46:
The following 2 users liked this post by aussieflyboy:
Yes. Massive own goal from AFAP. Way to stick it to the company by essentially agreeing with them and rendering all strike action a colossal waste of time and money. All good though, the gen pop generated strike fund will pay for everyones days off
Not leaping up in support of their decision but I guess they reasoned that an increasing margin on the no vote was only going to lead to intractability so they wanted to jump out in front and not waste effort on fighting a losing campaign. Regarding the negotiating period- I doubt fair work would have had it any other way. There is no way they would wade through the entirety of Qantas’ garbage proposal without finding out which aspects are already in agreement.
There has been a suggestion here that PIA wasn’t necessary. Any of us who have been involved in/around for EB negotiations with QF has seen the Qantas ‘negotiation’ method too many times. The asymmetry in EA negotiations can only be countered by PIA, FWC approved PIA. Without PIA the company can simply stonewall pilots for as long as they need, allowing an expired agreement to drift along endlessly pursuant to an acceptance of reduced pay and conditions. In fact the granting of PIA is a tacit confirmation from the FWC that pilots have no other tool at their disposal.
I agree that PIA is inappropriate, but without it conditions continue to decay unabated, as has been proven during every EA negotiation for 20 or more years. If anyone can find an improved agreement that was reached without PIA I would like to see it.
I agree that PIA is inappropriate, but without it conditions continue to decay unabated, as has been proven during every EA negotiation for 20 or more years. If anyone can find an improved agreement that was reached without PIA I would like to see it.
The following 5 users liked this post by gordonfvckingramsay:
From the outside, it appears that, rather than PIA being used as a means to achieve an outcome, PIA itself was the endgame, with improving pilots conditions being a secondary concern.
IB clearly was not the plan otherwise the union would have made the application itself, or at the very least, not initially opposed it and then changed their mind. Targeting an IB declaration would have at least shown a plan. Likewise, an application for termination of the EA would be another option. Alas, it seems like PIA was blindly stumbled into without any great consideration as to the final outcome.
Looking at previous determinations, it is difficult to see the FWC making any great changes to the benefit of any one side. The act is drafted in such a way as to encourage bargaining and therefore I suspect the outcome will be fairly vanilla (apart from required bumps in pay to comply with the BOOT) in order discourage parties going down this path.
The following 2 users liked this post by ddrwk:
There has been a suggestion here that PIA wasn’t necessary. Any of us who have been involved in/around for EB negotiations with QF has seen the Qantas ‘negotiation’ method too many times. The asymmetry in EA negotiations can only be countered by PIA, FWC approved PIA. Without PIA the company can simply stonewall pilots for as long as they need, allowing an expired agreement to drift along endlessly pursuant to an acceptance of reduced pay and conditions. In fact the granting of PIA is a tacit confirmation from the FWC that pilots have no other tool at their disposal.
I agree that PIA is inappropriate, but without it conditions continue to decay unabated, as has been proven during every EA negotiation for 20 or more years. If anyone can find an improved agreement that was reached without PIA I would like to see it.
I agree that PIA is inappropriate, but without it conditions continue to decay unabated, as has been proven during every EA negotiation for 20 or more years. If anyone can find an improved agreement that was reached without PIA I would like to see it.
From the outside, it appears that, rather than PIA being used as a means to achieve an outcome, PIA itself was the endgame, with improving pilots conditions being a secondary concern.
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I guess the question you have to ask is where would this be if no strike action was taken? You would probably be sitting there being stonewalled with the whole "company policy" line. Next question is then how many years do you sit there doing that? Is AIPA's end game just to negotiate forever?
The following 2 users liked this post by neville_nobody:
However, don’t for one moment think that the pay and conditions that the short haul agreement contains is anywhere near acceptable. Given the time that it’s been around, AIPA should be ashamed of themselves for letting it get to such a ****house state that you can’t even attract current Second Officers to take up the role of FO Shorthaul.
The current shorthaul agreement is now so far behind where it should be, that it’s going to take things like PIA to get it even close to where it needs to be, mainly because you have such an opponent in QF IR that would rather see aircraft parked against the fence than to possibly give pilots a liveable and acceptable salary.
AIPA’s ‘softly softly’ and ‘we will continue to work with the company’ approach is outdated and ineffective.
The following 8 users liked this post by morno:
Morno
I’m confused…
How is it AIPA’s fault? Surely QF needs to think long & hard about why it can’t get enough S/Os to fill SH positions. QF’s initial strategy was, with threats of outsourcing during Covid, to lower new-joiner conditions for S/Os. Time will tell if it’s working, but it’s a bit rich to conflate pilot career choices with members’ representation…. Everyone knows who holds the hammer (knife even?) in these things.🤔😳
AIPA should be ashamed of themselves for letting it get to such a ****house state that you can’t even attract current Second Officers to take up the role of FO Shorthaul
Who cares what AIPA do, in reality that union is in the minority when it comes to representing Pilots flying Qantas domestic passengers. QLink is the new Mainline and now’s the time for them to improve their conditions.
As for it going on forever, well the union is also allowed to apply for IB, so again it’s hard to see what PIA has achieved (thus far).
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