CEO Alan Joyce - 9th September 2022 per Annual Report

"As the
Qantas Group has always done when
we’re able, we’re sharing the benefits
of the recovery with our employees,
including offering around $10,000
in incentives and share rights as
we reach important milestones
in our recovery."

Qantas flight attendants to mull strikes

Lucas BairdReporter

Oct 12, 2022 – 2.41pm

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Qantas domestic flight attendants are considering strike action as the union and airline butt heads over the length of shifts and pay as aviation continues its pandemic recovery.

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA) fired off applications for two pro industrial action ballots to the Fair Work Commission this week, as federal secretary Teri O’Toole accused Qantas of being “deaf” to concerns.

Qantas has been working to restore its reputation after months of delays, cancellation and lost baggage. Louie Douvis

“Qantas management is asking cabin crew to sacrifice safety to keep their jobs,” she said.

“Workers are already exhausted trying to keep up with demand on a skeleton workforce following cuts to crew numbers per flight and an overenthusiastic redundancy scheme to cull workers and cut costs.”

The sticking point for the union is an increase in tour of duty lengths from nine-hours-and-45 minutes to 12 hours or even 14 hours in some cases, and pay freezes that Qantas is trying to roll out across its entire unionised workforce.

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Ms O’Toole said the deal offered by Qantas, which includes a two-year wage freeze followed by an annual increase of 2 per cent, was inadequate with annual inflation running at 6.1 per cent.

Ms O’Toole say the changes will force workers to work harder and longer, compromising safety, with up to 1200 out of 1500 domestic flight attendants set to vote on stop-work actions and delays to safety briefings that may hold-up flights.

The potential for delays comes as Qantas tries to reset its reputation with the travelling public after months of delays, cancellations and lost baggage.

Delays threatened

Qantas says the situation got better early in September, with 71 per cent of flights ran on time in the first two weeks of the month compared to 52 per cent in July and 67 per cent in August. Cancellations were down to 2 per cent, according to the airline, and the rate of mishandled baggage fell too.

Ms O’Toole said the airline was “asking cabin crew to sacrifice safety to keep their jobs” and had threatened to outsource the work if an agreement could not be reached – an allegation that Qantas denies.

“Crew take their first responder responsibilities for passenger safety seriously and are calling out the dangers of this proposal for fatigue management and the devastating impact it can have for safety,” she said.

Qantas said the grounds for seeking the industrial action was “misleading” and that it had a “rigorous fatigue management process in place for crew”.

“The shift length changes we’re asking for are the same that apply to crew working at other domestic airlines in Australia. The FAAA signed off on these conditions as part of agreements for those airlines, so it’s bizarre they’re now claiming they’re unsafe,” a spokesman said.

The FAAA claims that, while it did sign on to similar agreements with Virgin Australia, the circumstances were different as Virgin was in administration when that deal was forged.

The longer shifts had led to a significant increase in fatigue reports and removal, offsetting any productivity gains too, it said.

Qantas said it was “still at the table negotiating with the FAAA, so it’s very disappointing that they’re now threatening industrial action” and pointed out the FAAA had signed a similar agreement with Regional Express in August.

It argues that, combined with the incentives, like a one-off $5000 cash bonus if they accept wage freezes in their next pay deal and 1000 share rights, it is offering staff for working during COVID-19, cabin crew would get a pay rise.

The earliest industrial action could occur is November 18.

Nevertheless, this issue opens a new front in the airline’s ongoing battle with unions as engineers also take industrial action in their push for higher pay.

The airline earlier this year threatened to terminate its industrial agreement with international cabin crew to push through a new deal that it said was the only way to effectively operate post-pandemic, which the union equated to putting a “gun to its head” to accept lesser conditions than what it desired.