Your ASU National negotiating team met with AaE management in Sydney on 26th February 2015 for our 4th meeting and despite promises that the company would be ready to talk seriously about your agreement we had just another meeting going over old ground about our claims with little response or offers from the company. It seems that we have to explain our issues over and over again even when we have put comprehensive positions in writing.
The company promises that at our next meeting on 17th March 2015 they will be better prepared – we can only hope so.
Payroll issue needs to be fixed
Since around the middle of 2014 ASU delegates have been raising a problem that has occurred with how shifts starting after midnight but before 5am and finishing after 1pm have been paid. We have raised the problem both locally and at our national meetings. An interpretation issue with our AAE on airport BDA has seen Qantas payroll no longer pay ANY shift loading to staff who start work before 5am and finish a 10 hour shift say at 1:30pm. This has happened in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney Domestic and despite fixing the problem at Brisbane airport - at least ongoing (back pay is another issue) – Qantas payroll seems to have done the same thing in the other locations very recently. We had thought the problem was fixed at our last meeting in 2014 but it appears not as the failure to pay the 22 ½% shift loading has occurred in other airports subsequently.
This is a ridiculous situation which cannot continue and we have demanded that AaE fix this immediately. As a result all staff should get a general memo from the company shortly about the problem and then the company says it will provide those who have been affected by this failure to pay shift loading with details of what is owing by 13th March 2015 and shortly thereafter back pay will be made and the ongoing issue will be fixed. If you do not get notification about how your pay was affected and you believe you should have make sure you let your local ASU delegate and organizer know.
We will also fix the ambiguity in clause 22.1 of the new agreement so this reinterpretation cannot happen again.
This issue shows why it is extremely important to check your pay – Qantas payroll has a long history of reinterpreting the meaning of clauses in Agreements – we also believe they may be doing this with the entitlement to 5 weeks annual leave for shift workers in some locations. We are looking at this issue at the moment too.
The lesson in this is that you MUST check every pay and if there are errors raise it immediately and if it is not fixed talk to your local ASU delegate.
What's next?
Our next negotiations meeting is on 17th March – we will report back then.
If you have queries contact your local ASU delegate or organiser (download the full bulletin below for details).
AaE Bulletin 2 March 2015