Eastern EBA
 

G'day, I have an interview coming up with Qlink, and I'm trying to find the latest EBA.

I can only currently locate the 2019 agreement, which from my reading should have now expired.

Is the 2023 agreement still being negotiated?

Cheers

Correct.

Thanks for the confirmation. Any idea how far along in the negotiations they are?

Anyone know whether companies are obliged to 'back-pay' staff dating back from the expiry date of the last EBA, if you leave before the new one is in place?

They are not. They are not required to back pay regardless, its merely a negotiated item as to whether they do or not which is why they will drag negotiations out for as long as possible.

Unless things have changed, EBA negotiations will generally be dragged out for minimum 12 months after expiry, and then a “take it or lose it” very ordinary offer will be made. If voted down, back pay will disappear and negotiations to another ordinary agreement will commence. Partial back pay may come out again as a “sweetener” at some point.

Having said that it’s not a terrible place to work for a bit.

They are absolute grubs. They won’t pay Super on any ‘back pay’ that they offer and are limiting your pay rise to 3% so that they effectively don’t pay the increases to the Super Guarantee over the next few years. The compounding loss of Super into a 20 something year old Dash Pilots account could be $100,000 at retirement.

I can assure you seat prices/QF Points that they sell have risen more then 3%.

Good luck with your interview

Just download the GA pilots award, you'll slot in around Grade 3 Instructor with the Design Feature training approval.

Depressing isn't it. Hurts seeing whats going on pay wise over in the states.

I've landed an interview with Rex too, looks like they're slightly better from what I can see

Run!
 

Unfortunately with the cost of living, buying a house or supporting your family: $60–80K as a FO doesn’t go far. Eastern and Sunstate EBAs are always the lowest on the qantas IR team - they’ll drag it on for 12 + months and offer back pay, take it or leave.

Virgin, alliance, network are all hiring mate. While the industry is hot I’d be trying to get into a comfortable seat. Most current linkers are jumping … well trying to jump to a comfortable seat, that should tell you enough.

You’ll be at JQ within 6-12 months if you went down the Rex path (at this rate). If you went down the Qlink path you’ll be;
A) locked in for 18 months before you can even apply to anywhere within the group
B) 6-12 month timeframe from interview to active hold
C) 8-36 month timeframe for start date (AOC release)
(timeframes on average time: based of current pilots)

You do the math.

Agree with FO Nappy Bum. The opportunity to jump directly to a jet operator in Aus has never been so good. There is less competition since many who would normally compete with you for these jobs are in the USA living the dream. You still have to make the grade, but at least, the odds are better if you do get through the sim and interview assessments. Give the turbo-prop operators a miss and apply directly to JQ, VA, Network, Alliance, NJS, NJE, EFA. A jet operator will have you earning a 6 figure starting salary as an FO.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've applied for Virgin too and they asked me to go do an MCC, so just waiting to hear back from them, thats the current pie in the sky option.

I've applied for the others, but not enough twin time yet unfortuntately. RPT line flying in a caravan apparently isn't as complex as buggering around in a clapped out partenavia.

Rex defintely looks to be the next best option. I've heard as much about Qlink as you guys have let on. Last week I applied on monday and they had an already had an interveiw date for me come thursday, I think that may be a sign on how many is jumping ship currently.

And it's hard to believe but Rex EBA will have you earning more as well and probably a faster time to command, especially if you compare to the QLink 200-300 fleet, it could be 10s of thousands more per year for similar workload. Easterns and Sunnies have a lot to do this EBA, they are way behind CPI on remuneration, probably somewhere in the region of -20%! (and that's before this years CPI is added)

You’re correct - operating a single engine turbine is simpler. There’s a reason twin experience is worth more.
Only in Aus do we believe a turbine requires more experience. Most of the world know that a turbine is basically bullet proof - even in the hands of a ham fisted pilot.

Yes and no, Turbines just poop themselves for different reasons, in service reliability is more a consideration for cost as they have longer TBOs and such. As far as experiencing engine failures, you will see them as regularly in turbine aircraft as piston, however the other engine if you have one is more than capable of producing enough thrust continuously to make it less of an event to the piston counterpart. With a piston its more likely to actually fail, rather than a sensor telling you to shut it down, which is the case in many turbine shutdowns and the sensor tends to be at fault rather than the engine. There are many occasions where they do fail mechanically as well, and from birdstrikes or FOD. Most airlines will have a few shut downs every year for various reasons, most will never reach the ATSB anymore as its considered a non event, unless it creates media attention.

Piston management is irrelevant to airlines, and turbines are too easy to be concerned about.

Piston twin vs turbine single is not the issue, its than one is more often than not flown IFR and one is more often than not flown VFR.

The more attentive employers will take note of which applies to you, others will just have some entry level admin type with no idea place you in the wrong box unfortunately.

Twin time is more just about managing two engines and having baseline knowledge of assymetrics and dealing with engine failures, turbine or piston is irrelevant. Having Turbine time ensures you know what simple things will kill a turbine. Turbines might be 'easy' to operate but they also have some areas where you can kill them rapidly with ham fisted no brain operation. On start you can cook them, in flight especially at altitude they are easy to cook, rapid movement of levers can lead to compressor stalls and spitting blades and so on. If your Piston or Turbine has FADEC or similar that is what makes them easy to use, not the type of engine.

I spent a reasonable number the years in airlines that recruited straight out of GA and it was always the pilots without a proper grasp of the IFR environment that scrubbed out of training, or if lucky they battled on as 'strugglers'.

S/E IFR was starting to become more of a thing back then and we changed our recruiting accordingly without the lack of multi time proving any sort of hinderance.
Not every operator moves with the times unfortunately for the OP.

Oh and not one person in those years ever came undone over thier turbine engine handling skills (types pre-fadec). Every time it was IFR ability was the issue.