Qantas at odds with aviation workers on latest bargaining proposal

Australia’s largest carrier Qantas is at loggerheads with aviation service workers – responsible for plane safety, scheduling and on-time flight arrivals – over a proposed change to an enterprise agreement.

The Australian Services Union has accused Qantas of widening an existing rift between management and staff by moving to strip pay and conditions from one in three employees covered by the agreement, just weeks after reporting improved financial results, managerial pay increases and a shareholder buy-back.

However, the carrier rejects the union’s allegations, arguing its proposal to convert 1300 employees from being covered by the enterprise agreement to management positions will encourage corporate staff to stay with the airline in a tough labour market.

A protracted tussle between Qantas and the union could leave passengers bracing for another bout of service disruptions leading up to the Christmas school holidays.

“This is not in the spirit of Australia. This is the mean spirit of Alan Joyce,” said union’s national secretary Emeline Gaske, adding the proposal would set a “dangerous precedent” for the rest of the Qantas workforce if enacted.

“How is making employees individually negotiate their employment conditions a retention incentive? There’s nothing stopping Qantas giving additional entitlements to employees covered by the agreement.” she continued.

Qantas chief Alan Joyce came under fire last month after the release of the carrier’s annual report revealed he was paid $5.5 million last year, including $2.2 million in cash pay and $3.3 million in bonus shares that could vest if certain goals are met.

The airline said it had restored Joyce’s base salary to 2019 levels because he took zero pay for three months in 2020 and for one month in 2021, in addition to three months on reduced pay in 2021.

Joyce’s relationship with Qantas’s unions has been fraught since he grounded the carrier’s entire fleet in 2011 to prevent industrial action, stranding about 70,000 passengers across the world.