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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2011
Qantas Lockout: What the unions want & what Qantas says
As we all know Qantas has ceased its operations in response to industrial reaction; this is a lockout of workers for fighting for their industrial rights.
Here is a summary of the union position and Qantas position according to the
Australian Financial Review:
Transport Workers Union
The TWU, which is negotiating a new agreement for 3800 baggage handlers, ground staff, and ramp services staff such as caterers, asked for a 5% rise, but has already indicated this figure is negotiable and it will settle at a lower rate.
But the TWU is concerned about Qantas’s use of cheaper contract Labour that threatens the livelihood of its members.
The union says most of its workers on the agreement are paid a base salary of $38,000 a year and rely on shift penalties and overtime to make a wage that covers the cost of living. It says this overt time work has been undermined by contracting out over the past 18 months.
The TWU says it understands the company needs “operational flexibility” but wants only 20% of work to be done by contracted, compared with Qantas’s preferred level of 55%.
The TWU is also seeking:
Protection for terms and conditions in terms of safety, training and standards – to apply to Qantas staff AND contractors.
Qantas to resolve what it says are long-standing aviation security issues and a lack of safety protocols for employees.
Rights of injured workers to be treated with dignity and respect
Commitments to a mutual relationship and good faith bargaining
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association
The ALAEA is negotiating on behalf of 1600 licensed Qantas engineers for an agreement that expired on January 1st.
It is seeking a 3% per annum pay rise and faster progression by engineers through the payscale.
The engineers’ most contentious clause is that the Qantas commit to local engineers doing heavy maintenance on the company’s growing fleet of new A380s in the coming years. Local engineers already do line-maintenance, or the day-to-day upkeep of planes, but heavy maintenance engineering starts on an aircraft only after several years of operation. A380s were introduced in late 2008.
Qantas management says it does not have the scale of operation to establish a A380 maintenance hangar in Australia that would be viable. But the union says the likely alternative of “offshoring” the maintenance to the Philippines raises safety concerns.
Australian International Pilot Association
The AIPA is negotiating the current agreement on behalf of the 1700 long-haul Qantas pilots who fly larger aircraft like Boing 747s, 767s, and Airbus A380s and A330s, and has not staged industrial action in 44 years
The union wants a 2.5% a year wage rise which it says is negotiable
The key issue is a Qantas flight/Qantas pilot clauses which would see all Qantas flights operated by Qantas pilots.
Without this clause, the pilots group say the airline’s management will look to employ foreign pilots or use the lower-paid Jetstar pilots on Qantas-coded flights. The pilots are worried Qantas’s plans to move to Asia will mean that lower-skilled foreign pilots will be flying Qantas-branded flights, raising safety concerns and reducing the amount of work available for them.
Qantas argues it cannot continue to operate if it is forced to pay all the pilots the same pay and conditions.
AIPA says it industrial action has not cost the company a cent in revenue, delayed passengers or grounded any flights and that its entire public industrial action over the past four months has been to make a positive in-flight announcements and to wear red ties with a campaign message on them.
What Qantas says
There are 15 unions involved with Qantas and in the past 15 months it reached agreements with 10,000 workers represented by 4 unions over 5 enterprise agreements or 1/3 of the Qantas workforce.
Qantas says the TWU staff are the best paid in the country – 12% high than their equivalents in Virgin Australia – and its pilots and licensed engineers are among the best compensated in the world with its long-haul pilots for example earning 50% more than their peers at Virgin.
It claims the 3 unions are seeking pay and conditions that would put Qantas staff further beyond its competitors and that they want the right to control key elements of how the company is run.
My take on Qantas’s argument that they pay more than their competitor Virgin is that a fair day’s work ought to entitle someone to a fair day’s pay. If Virgin is paying its staff an unsatisfactory wages then it ought to have industrial action taken upon it. But that does not stop Qantas from the criticism that it should receive for paying its average worker $38,000 – which is certainly not a living wage.
The unions are well within their right to protest Qantas the national carrier from outsourcing its services to other countries; and ensuring that if Qantas does that they pay equivalent and equal wages. Moreover $38,000 is a disgusting wage for a full time job in any environment which requires security checks like and international airport. Having poor pissed off workers is never a good thing in that sort of environment.
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