Right to disconnect laws.
The new law may make evening phone calls with a morning roster change tricky.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-...ties/103445984 |
The companies will argue and the unions will support that pilots are “special” they are “managers” “unique”: These laws don’t apply to pilots.
Just like the public holiday legislation…. |
It only gets serious when the employee applies to a court to have the boss "cease and desist" after continued out-of-hours harassment. Otherwise, carry on as usual.
|
The Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said on Tuesday that it was more likely that employees and employers would negotiate more formal arrangements for out of hours contact through workplace agreements and conditions for award workers would be updated by the Fair Work Commission.
While I don’t think this legislation means aircrew will be totally free of contractibility requirements at home, it should mean there’ll have to be specific contact requirements negotiated into EAs which specify when a company can contact a pilot and when they are required to respond. |
Originally Posted by Icarus2001
(Post 11593301)
The new law may make evening phone calls with a morning roster change tricky.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-...ties/103445984 Most pilot agreements are just that; "agreements"….... although I have been known to mutter that the A in EA/EBA within the Qantas Group be replaced with a U for ultimatum. Anyway, I haven't read the text of the actual legislation but I suspect that where an employee agrees to be contactable at certain times, this will be considered an exception to the law. Hence an "Agreement" between an employee and employer will include such provisions as many do now. |
Of course, C441 but it does make the negotiation of an allowance much easier as it is based on a variation to IR law.
|
Originally Posted by Icarus2001
(Post 11593301)
The new law may make evening phone calls with a morning roster change tricky.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-...ties/103445984 |
You're free to do anything you like. Whether the exercise of that freedom results in e.g. a breach of a contract of employment is a related but different question that depends on (in this case) what the IR laws and your contract of employment say.
|
What I mean is, are there aviation companies in Australia that require you to be contactable during your rest period? Crewing can call me if they like, but I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to.
|
Read your enterprise agreement. Every airline I have been employed by states very clearly in the contract or enterprise agreement what the requirements are around being contactable.
|
states very clearly in the contract or enterprise agreement what the requirements are around being contactable. Those agreements you knew of were written BEFORE this legislation existed. It is not hard to imagine writing that in an EBA post the gazetting of the legislation would be incompatible with FWC conditions or even the NES. Which would mean that to insert such a clause would require some monetary consideration. |
2) An employee is not required to monitor, read or respond to emails, telephone calls or any other kind of communication from an employer outside of the employee's hours of work (including during periods of leave) unless the employee is in receipt of an availability allowance for the period during which the communication is made. 3) In this section: availability allowance, for a period, means an allowance for being rostered, or otherwise directed by an employer, to remain available to perform work during the period. |
Yes please.
|
Originally Posted by brokenagain
(Post 11594147)
So where’s my availability allowance for being on a 12 hour standby but not being used, and currently being unpaid for it? I’ll take a full 12 hour credit please.
Is the text you quoted contained in the terms of your current employment? If yes, have you asked your employer to pay you the availability allowance for the twelve hours you were on standby? If not, why not? Maybe they've arranged things such that being on standby counts as being inside your hours of work. |
Originally Posted by directsosij
(Post 11594094)
Read your enterprise agreement. Every airline I have been employed by states very clearly in the contract or enterprise agreement what the requirements are around being contactable.
|
The irony.
Everyone connected to their tiny screens 24/7. |
Originally Posted by directsosij
(Post 11594094)
Read your enterprise agreement. Every airline I have been employed by states very clearly in the contract or enterprise agreement what the requirements are around being contactable.
|
This seems to be a bit like the working on public holidays thread from a year or so ago.
Has Anyone’s working conditions really changed since that came in? |
Originally Posted by clark y
(Post 11594579)
This seems to be a bit like the working on public holidays thread from a year or so ago.
Has Anyone’s working conditions really changed since that came in? |
Originally Posted by hillbillybob
(Post 11594628)
I was able to drop the hammer (at least a little), requested ANZAC day off, didn't get it. filled the form in and under the pressing reason they wanted replied with "because I'm a veteran" and was magically fixed. rather than playing the find someone to swap game
|
No need for these right to disconnect laws. When I’m not at work I’m not available at all. End of story. Especially when on unassigned days RDOs and Annual Leave. We all already have this right.
|
Originally Posted by MalcolmReynolds
(Post 11594861)
No need for these right to disconnect laws. When I’m not at work I’m not available at all. End of story. Especially when on unassigned days RDOs and Annual Leave. We all already have this right.
|
What was the punishment for not taking a call or responding to a text on your RDO or annual leave?
|
Originally Posted by Chronic Snoozer
(Post 11595104)
What was the punishment for not taking a call or responding to a text on your RDO or annual leave?
The practical effect is that pilot workgroups that don’t have specific contact requirements written into their EAs will need them, which can only be a good thing. |
Originally Posted by dr dre
(Post 11595152)
Some EAs have contact obligations and protections set in stone, others are vague, leaving them open to abuse. What this new legislation does is prevent adverse action against an employee for not being contactable outside of agreed hours.
The practical effect is that pilot workgroups that don’t have specific contact requirements written into their EAs will need them, which can only be a good thing. |
Originally Posted by Chronic Snoozer
(Post 11595166)
So, again, what was the punishment for not taking a call or responding to a text on your RDO or annual leave?
I’ve been lucky to spend the majority of my working career under contracts with well defined contractibility protocols but not everyone is as lucky. Therefore this legislation will benefit a lot of workers. |
Ah no I don't have to answer my phone to anyone. Even the Police.
|
Originally Posted by MalcolmReynolds
(Post 11595459)
Ah no I don't have to answer my phone to anyone. Even the Police.
Ultimately these laws would protect you, though, because they prevent an unscrupulous manager from being allowed to punish you for not answering your phone on days off or outside reasonable times. They dont stop a manager from texting someone to say “there’s a shift available”, or legitimate emergency communications, they are aimed at stopping employees from being punished for not answering at all hours of the day or night, particularly those with a regular shifts eg, 9-5, Monday to Friday job who should reasonably expect their nights and weekends, or other days off, to be free. |
Dutton already promising to remove the laws once in power.
|
De_Flieger,
it’s not about being financially secure. I doubt many of us including myself would consider that to be the case. My point is it is not a crime to not answer your phone. Never has been. During lockdown I didn’t answer my phone while on rest. Then I answered a call from a no caller id number and it was the Police checking self quarantine. I said I don’t normally answer no call id calls. I was told you have to answer we are the Police. I told them “no I f#cking don’t and how the hell am I supposed to know who you are before I do or don’t answer?” You want me? Come and knock on the door. Never heard from them again. So if the Police can get f#cked then my company can too. Not available on RDO’s, Non Assigned days nor Annual Leave. You want me on standby? Roster it then! I have no problem with that. |
Originally Posted by MalcolmReynolds
(Post 11595874)
De_Flieger,
it’s not about being financially secure. I doubt many of us including myself would consider that to be the case. My point is it is not a crime to not answer your phone. Never has been. During lockdown I didn’t answer my phone while on rest. Then I answered a call from a no caller id number and it was the Police checking self quarantine. I said I don’t normally answer no call id calls. I was told you have to answer we are the Police. I told them “no I f#cking don’t and how the hell am I supposed to know who you are before I do or don’t answer?” You want me? Come and knock on the door. Never heard from them again. So if the Police can get f#cked then my company can too. Not available on RDO’s, Non Assigned days nor Annual Leave. You want me on standby? Roster it then! I have no problem with that. |
Originally Posted by MalcolmReynolds
(Post 11595874)
My point is it is not a crime to not answer your phone.
Never has been. I’m glad you’re in a position that you can ignore calls, these laws are for people who are mistreated by their employers and can’t ignore calls and emails because of that. The justification for having the laws is the same as a workplace safety law…good employers will do the right thing anyway, bad ones are the reasons we need the laws. |
Originally Posted by Ladloy
(Post 11595798)
Dutton already promising to remove the laws once in power.
|
Originally Posted by dr dre
(Post 11595903)
Well lucky for Australia’s workers the possibility of that happening is quite remote! I’m not sure how convincing people to vote for you with a “we want to make it legal for a boss to punish you for not answering calls on your day off” policy will work…….
To say it is quite remote for him to be leader next election is naive. He is good at scare campaigns and distraction. Just look at the voice to parliament, the language he used about Albanese and tax changes or even this week with Barnaby falling over.. |
Originally Posted by AerocatS2A
(Post 11593825)
What I mean is, are there aviation companies in Australia that require you to be contactable during your rest period? Crewing can call me if they like, but I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to.
|
Perhaps it might be owing to the manner in which the media reported this matter however, I was somewhat flummoxed that any employee was required to respond to an employers request outside of their working hours. During the weekend, Jack & Jill, who don't work on the weekends, go camping on the top of the hill which does not have any communication services. When Jack returns to work on Monday he is subject to punitive measures because he failed to respond to a voicemail from the employer. By the media reports, it infers that Jack is required to be contactable by, and respond to the employer, over the weekends. I expected Jack's fundamental right would be the complete opposite of that.
Is it just a coincidence that situations like this are becoming more common along with declining living standards, low wages, poor working conditions and employer abuse, at a time when union membership is at it's lowest level since unions began? I don't, I think there is a direct relationship between the two..... I only hope the younger generation will see the truth and unite. When you look at the majority of impoverished countries around the world, there is a common element that exists amongst them and that is, no workers' unions. |
I've heard (unverified) that in some European countries these "disconnect" laws include that an employer must not engage in any form of communication with an employee outside of their working hours e.g. irrespective of what the subject matter is, management can not send a work related email to Gertie's account outside of her working hours.
|
Originally Posted by Mr Proach
(Post 11598846)
I've heard (unverified) that in some European countries these "disconnect" laws include that an employer must not engage in any form of communication with an employee outside of their working hours e.g. irrespective of what the subject matter is, management can not send a work related email to Gertie's account outside of her working hours.
|
Maybe I should wait until 60 mins before my flight to read NOTAMs as if they were handed to me like the old days. CASA could mandate that they aren’t sent out electronically until sign on. I could see s… hitting the fan, hard! I get the laws, there is just more and more being expected without pay. It would be good if a union could lead the fight on this front.
|
Originally Posted by maggotdriver
(Post 11599287)
Maybe I should wait until 60 mins before my flight to read NOTAMs as if they were handed to me like the old days. CASA could mandate that they aren’t sent out electronically until sign on. I could see s… hitting the fan, hard! I get the laws, there is just more and more being expected without pay. It would be good if a union could lead the fight on this front.
If your EA sign on obligation is -60, don’t sign on until -60. Your union has already got that in the EA. |
All times are GMT. The time now is 17:03. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.