Airlines: General

Modern Airlines Award cannot be allowed to stand

By the ASU - the airlines industry union

On 4th September 2009 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) handed down a decision which significantly cut rates and conditions in existing airlines Awards. Remarkably the AIRC changed not one word of its draft Award which was first issued back in May 2009.

While the AIRC response is disappointing, the message for ASU members is we cannot let this Award stand and we must do whatever we can to convince the Federal Government to tell the AIRC they must correct this significant problems this new Award will create.

The Government has intervened before in other industries; we must ask them to do this again.

How did this happen?

Unfortunately we still have no explanation for why this has been done - our Award which covers many thousands of airline workers across Australia rated only 2 paragraphs in the 52 page decision of the AIRC on 4 September 2009.

There is no explanation for why Award rates of pay have been slashed.

It seems the AIRC do not think thousands of airline workers deserve an explanation.

A dream come true for employers

Employers in the airline industry cannot believe their luck - they could never have hoped to have achieved such significant cuts.

The overseas airlines employers in particular have walked away from a Federal Award with rates and conditions and classification structure they agreed to after much negotiation only 4 years ago.

They have taken the opportunity to renege on the promises of the past; we cannot let them do this.

Not just wages but conditions gone...

As previously reported the AIRC decision also cuts vital allowances which have been paid and continue to be paid in the airline industry.

Transport allowance, social disability allowance and the tropical zone allowance are gone, not just for ASU covered staff but for everyone - on the ramp and in engineering as well.

Personal leave has been cut too.  Airline Operations Award entitlements are cut in the first year of service by 4 personal leave days and in each year after that by nearly 9 days per year, and Overseas Airlines Award staff lose 5 personal leave days per year.

This affects everyone

If the safety net is lowered new companies can spring up and utilise the new lower wages and conditions.

Look what happened under WorkChoices - new companies like Toll Dnata (owned half by Emirates) or EGH (owned by Qantas) sprung up paying lower rates and offering inferior conditions.  It will happen again if the safety net is lowered.

Overseas airlines like Singapore or Lufthansa or British Airways have created other companies outside Australia, they will do it here too if they can utilise lower standard wages and conditions.

The AIRC has ignored the fact that not all workers in the airline industry have EBAs and many are Award reliant and will be affected.

The lowering of the Award standard punishes employers who have bargained on the old standard and rewards companies who only pay the Award minimums.

Even if you have an existing EBA you will not be safe - with a lower safety net the existing companies will never have to give you a pay rise because your rates will be well above the Award.

You need to act now

We need to ramp up our email campaign to the Federal Ministers and our local Federal MPs.

The Deputy Prime Minister has intervened and fixed other Awards that have problems, we need to tell her and the government that we need the same to happen in airlines.

We started an email campaign when the draft Award came out and over 1100 emails have already been sent to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport.  We need to impress upon them that they must act to fix this.

Pass this bulletin on and get everyone you know to send an email.

If you have already sent an email we have a new version on our website to take account of recent events.  The link for the email campaign is:
http://tinyurl.com/awardcrash.

What else can you do

Contact your local Federal MP by fax or email and tell them what you think about the cuts to our Awards.  Details of how you contact MPs and Senators can be found at www.aph.gov.au.

You can use the text from our email campaign for letters and emails you send to local members.

Your ASU Airlines Organisers

Earlier ASU news items on this issue

Media coverage

Unions' plea to Julia Gillard over growing award anger, by Ewin Hannan, 8 September 2009, The Australian

Union backlash over award modernisation, AAP and The Age, 5 September 2009

New awards 'beyond a joke', By Sabra Lane for PM, ABC News, 5 September 2009

Unions consider legal moves over revamped awards, PM with Mark Colvin, ABC News, 4 September 2009

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