More than 200 pilots in Western Australia are battling the airline for a pay rise, and say if they do not get it by Wednesday they are prepared to walk off the job.
Qantas pilots who operate passenger, charter and fly-in-fly-out (Fifo) services in Western Australia and work for Network Aviation, which is a subsidiary based at Perth Airport, wholly owned by Qantas, will stop work on Wednesday 4th October. The pilots are represented by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) union.
The AFAP has announced that it will proceed with a 24-hour stoppage of all work on Wednesday 4th October effective from 00:01, ending at 23.59 on the same day at Australian flag carrier Qantas unless deal struck in next 24 hours, in a bid to negotiate a new deal on working terms.
The looming strike, resulting in many flights being grounded will impact FIFO workers and holiday makers, unless pilots reach an agreement with Qantas.
The strike action announced on Friday saw more than 99 per cent of AFAP pilot members vote to take industrial action. A total of 209 of the 211 AFAP members eligible to participate submitted a vote in favour of undertaking protected industrial action (PIA) including work stoppages.
AFAP also represents pilots employed by Eastern Australia Airlines and Sunstate Airlines being subsidiaries of Qantas Group based in New South Wales and Queensland who are separately negotiating pay deals and voted this week to approve the taking of legally protected industrial action.
Their current pay deal expired in October 2020.
The union said it was taking the action because its members working for FIFO subsidiary Network Aviation were being paid “significantly” less than those at comparable airlines. In response, the airline has criticised the AFAP for “refusing to engage in further negotiations or conciliation opportunities”.
The AFAP said it notified Qantas management on Thursday afternoon about the stop work action.
Network Aviation operates over 300 weekly flights, with regular services from Perth Airport and charter flights for mining, corporates and emergency freight.
Chris Aikens, AFAP’s senior industrial officer stated that the AFAP remained committed to reaching an agreement for their members in Western Australia who fly for Qantas subsidiary Network Aviation and was disappointed that take this action had to be taken.
The stop work action could affect over 50 flights, including Qantas Link routes from Perth to regional WA towns such as Exmouth, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, and Geraldton as well as to mine sites.
The move by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots is likely to result in huge disruption for the state’s major mining companies, given that the Flying Kangaroo controls more than 40 per cent of the local sector.
Network Aviation pilots are currently paid under a 2016 agreement which expired 3 years ago and includes starting salaries of $175,000 for captains and $107,000 for first officers.
A new deal, rejected by pilots, would see an immediate pay rise of up to 20% in the first year, followed by an annual increase of 3 per cent a year and sign-on bonuses of $7000 which is partly funded by offsets as part of the wages policy of the larger Qantas Group.
Qantas purchased Network Aviation in 2010 and operates a fleet including A320s and Fokker 100s.
The stop work action comes as embattled Qantas chairman Richard Goyder who appeared before a senate inquiry on Wednesday, continues to defy calls to step down from his position, facing repeated questions regarding his performance as Qantas chairman in light of recent sagas engulfing the airline.
New CEO Vanessa Hudson has indicated that she intended to repair relations with unions once she took over from predecessor.
AFAP pilots for the subsidiaries operate QantasLink services that fly to South Australia and Victoria, as well as internally in the states they are based in. A QantasLink spokesperson said that the airline had “contingency plans to minimise disruption to customers”.
