Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Qantas a winner in stoush over pilot pay

Andrew Heasley
September 7, 2011

QANTAS has won the latest scrap in its dogfight with its main pilots union, after the industrial umpire ruled the airline's use of cheaper overseas pilots was a legitimate labour practice.

The union, the Australian and International Pilots Association, had called on Fair Work Australia to consider Qantas's use of its New Zealand-based subsidiary Jetconnect a ''sham'' arrangement designed to avoid paying pilots Australian wages and conditions.

But Fair Work Australia yesterday found Jetconnect pilots were paid under a negotiated, collective New Zealand industrial agreement and it was a legitimate commercial arrangement to lower trans-Tasman flight costs.

It is a setback for the pilot union - which has mounted industrial action against Qantas over stalled pay and conditions negotiations - and which wanted to bring Jetconnect pilots under the Australian award.

''Qantas management have been cynically using this hollow shell of a company to avoid awarding employees Australian wages and conditions on what are ostensibly Qantas flights,'' said union president Captain Barry Jackson.

Qantas hailed the decision a victory for commonsense.

"The decision by Fair Work Australia is a comprehensive dismissal of the pilots' union's claim that the establishment of Jetconnect was to avoid Australia's industrial laws or disadvantage Qantas pilots,'' said Qantas's government relations spokeswoman, Olivia Wirth.

Captain Jackson said the decision might be appealed, likening Qantas's use of Jetconnect to a mining company setting up a shelf company in Indonesia to employ labour at Indonesian rates.

''Legislative reform is now needed to enable Fair Work Australia to intervene in cases such as this to protect the rights of Australian workers,'' he said.

Ms Wirth called for the pilot union to end its industrial action.

"The union should not be attempting to use Australia's Fair Work Act to override the industrial relations legislation and industrial agreements in other countries,'' she said.

No comments:

Post a Comment