Virgin Australia pilots have given the middle finger to an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) struck with the Australian Federation of Airline Pilots (AFAP) and the country’s number two airline. About 61% of more than 1,000 pilots rejected the deal, which saw the airline offer pay increases worth more than 20% over three years.
The sticking point in the vote, where participation was 98%, appears to be six rostered days off that have been sacrificed, and concerns about fatigue.
The headline pay increases were up to 22.6% for captains and up to 24.3% for first officers over three years, according to the AFAP. But one pilot on internet forum Professional Pilots Rumour Network (PPRuNe) claimed that the overall deal was “sub CPI and sold by including allowances as part of your salary”. The pilot wrote a laundry list of issues with the deal before concluding that the loss of decent working conditions “far outweighed the benefits”.
AFAP executive director Simon Lutton said it was a “challenging environment for bargaining” and that the Virgin pilot group was “angry about the agreement made during the pandemic shortly after the business had emerged from administration”.
“The AFAP will now survey members to understand the reasons for the no vote before meeting with Virgin to resume negotiations,” Lutton said.
“The AFAP remains fully committed to this process and to finding a resolution as quickly as possible.”
A Qantas pilot told Crikey that as an observer: “It seems both sides failed to ‘sell’ the deal even though the deal is quite reasonable. The recent trust loss from COVID-19 still means pilots are on tenterhooks and are less willing to be agreeable.”
The rejection is the second the union has been handed this year, after pilots at Qantas’ Perth-based subsidiary Network Aviation rejected two attempts at a new EBA. The negotiation was deemed “intractable bargaining” by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) under new and largely untested powers. Observers believe that Qantas management is keen to test the FWC, which will now produce its own EBA between the pilots and Qantas.
The tussle over a new Virgin EBA has also exposed infighting between AFAP and the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which recommended its members vote no due to fatigue concerns. AFAP said it covered about 80% of Virgin Australia pilots at the time of the vote but new pilots had since joined the airline, while the TWU covers about 10% with the remainder non-unionised.
“Through months of negotiations, pilots have successfully landed an enterprise agreement that significantly improves pay and conditions after sacrifices were made to get Virgin flying again,” TWU Secretary Michael Kaine said.
“But this vote shows pilots will not tolerate their legitimate fatigue concerns being ignored or even worsened through the reduction of days off.”
This raising of fatigue as a reason to reject the EBA was slammed unusually hard by Virgin management.
“As the AOC [airline operating certificate] accountable manager and an employee of VAA for over 20 years, I have never seen a union representing flight crew act in this manner,” Virgin Australia chief operating officer Stuart Aggs said in an email to pilots obtained by Crikey.
“My desire is to have open and transparent conversations with flight crew on any issue at any time. The current commentary though, is in my view, an entirely inappropriate use of this process.
“To continually say that our request to put in place an EA with 150 DDOs (Designated Days Off) per year is unsafe is simply not credible. This is more DDOs than was contained in EA18 [the pilots’ pre-COVID EBA], it is 18 more than [Jetstar] and 20 more than [Qantas]. There is no safety issue with this proposal. Importantly, as you are all aware, the minimum DDOs operate in conjunction with 42 days annual leave providing VAA flight crew with a minimum of 174 days off per annum.”
The move by Virgin pilots comes as the proposed deal for Qantas short haul pilots, which they’ve widely criticised, moves to its next phase. The committee of management at the airline’s main union, the Australian International and Pilots Association, is on Thursday set to review the draft EBA nutted out between unions bosses and Qantas management.
Meanwhile, Qantas continues to keep its suppliers living in fear of losing their contracts and passing on the pain to their often low-paid workers. Aircraft refuellers at Ampol are voting on protected industrial action this week, after the company claimed keeping workers among the lowest paid was crucial for maintaining contracts with big airlines such as Qantas.
“Ampol workers are bravely voting to get rights to take protected industrial action because of their shocking treatment from the company, all because of contract pressures from larger airlines like Qantas,” TWU NSW/QLD state secretary Richard Olsen said.
“Across our airports, workers are overworked and exhausted trying to get flights operating smoothly, but still struggling on wages that are barely above the legal minimum with no financial security.”
Australia’s top four airports — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth — collectively banked $1.8 billion in profits last year.
Meanwhile, 300 employees of collapsed airline Bonza, not paid since March, may start getting some relief after the company was officially tipped into liquidation. Owed a collective $10.8 million, this means they will now be eligible for the federal government’s fair entitlements guarantee scheme.
For most passengers in regional Australia, Bonza’s collapse once more leaves them largely at the mercy of Qantas.
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