ASU Qantas EBA9 - Worth respect.

The "Worth Respect" campaign focused on the contribution that the almost 10,000 Australian based Qantas staff to be covered by EBA 9 make to the airline. The campaign highlighted that Qantas staff, their families, this great Australian airline and the Qantas passengers are "Worth respect".

•  Check out the Final QEBA9 documents here
•  Check out the related QEBA9 letters here

The ASU's campaign for our ninth Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA 9) with Qantas commenced with the release of our EBA survey, which was distributed to staff across the country.

Over 1300 staff from across the country completed our comprehensive survey and told us what they thought should be our priorities for this round of bargaining.

The EBA surveys were analysed in time for consideration by the ASU National Qantas Group Delegates meeting on March 17 and 18 - you can check out the photos here.

The Qantas delegates recommended a claim which was considered by meetings of members across the country and it was endorsed overwhelmingly.

The full Claim was presented to Qantas management on 5 May 2010.

The first negotiation meeting took place on 13 May 2010. Our second meeting was held on Wednesday 26 May 2010. You can see copies of the detailed claims that we tabled here in our consolidated detailed claims document. They include:

2. Include all EBA Clauses that are currently in side letters with Qantas in EBA 9 -including our union rights clauses
6. Increase redundancy entitlements including increasing payment for notice
7. Include duty travel provisions in EBA 9
9. Ensure any contractors are paid same rates and conditions
10. Improve staff travel to ensure equity of access, availability and recognition of Service
13. Ensure that the Qantas and QFIT Enterprise Awards are maintained as "modern" awards and that their conditions are not cut because of the Modern Airlines Ground Staff Award
15. Provide improved access to annual leave, long service leave and DiL days
16. Include provisions to allow ability to buy additional Annual Leave
19. Ensure all the company paid parental leave provisions are in the EBA and that they are in addition to the Federal Government Paid Parental Leave scheme due on 1 January 2011
21. Eradicate harassment of staff on sick leave
25. Increase Company Super contribution to 15%

Our next meeting was held on the 8 June 2010. At this meeting we put the arguments for four additional claims and presented evidence on the problems in rostering and payroll. Qantas were very defensive and disputed much of our evidence, but for every individual example they dismiss we know there are hundreds more like them, frustrated with the problems caused by iroster and the many payroll errors. The claims presented at this meeting were:

5. Ensure that any ambiguity in any EBA clause is removed.
11. Improve higher duties clause and consider the insertion of yearly increments
12. Provide a better, more accurate payroll system and pay slips that are understandable, and establish enforceable, quick protocol to deal with overpayments and underpayments
17. Improve clauses to allow for more notice of roster changes and change of shifts

Qantas responded with their claims at a meeting on 5 July 2010. They were yet to provide a written claim document so below is a summary of what they verbally put at the meeting:

• Cuts to part time conditions.
• Reduction of the Mascot only shift allowance of 17.5% for work between 4 - 6am to 15%
• Propose to change the transport and disability allowance.
• Provide for 20th day/RDOs to be cashed out.
• Change to payroll weeks
• Extend that time the company can engage temporary employees from 1 year to 2 years.
• Include new standard flexibility and dispute resolution clauses.
• Cash out annual leave

A separate meeting was held on 6 July 2010 to discuss Qantas Holidays, at which Qantas tabled a number of claims.

On 21 July 2010 we met as the full group again to further discuss the Qantas EBA. This meeting discussed the 5% pay rise, and the rostering and payroll issues again.

On 4 August we met again and discussed some of the most contentious issues in this EBA, the pay rise, rostering and payroll issues.

On 18 August Qantas Holidays delegates met with senior management to discuss our key demands arising from the proposed Stella-Jetset Travel merger.

The Qantas National Negotiating team met again on 19 August and at this meeting Qantas fleshed out more of the detail of their claim.

On 29 August we initiated discussions about the part time clause by putting a number of high level principles to Qantas. These are:

• Ratios of Part timers to Full timers are not correct - we need more full timers. The ASU proposes a joint analysis to determine correct ratios at each airport and shift location.
• A consistent and transparent process of how conversions from Part Time to Full time occur using the Melbourne Airport Model - i.e. done on the basis of length of service at the location.
• Better rostering practices consistent with our claim
• Less changes and more notice will improve conditions for part timers.
• Fix the clause so that staff are not artificially capped in hours late in their 12 month period to prevent a conversion of a position to full time
• Removal of the barrier at level 7 for part time employees
• Recognition that there are different types of part timers - some who want fixed hours, some who want to be part time with small amounts of extra hours, others who want to be Full time

Round 13 of the negotiations took place on 20 October, discussions at this meeting centre around three claims; purchased leave, payroll realignment and the wage claim. 

The National Negotiating team met with Qantas management again on 27 October for Round 14 of negotiations. At this meeting the ASU tabled the job security which deals with issues raised by the Airports of the Future project, we also discussed the purchased leave scheme and wage claim.

Round 15 of negotiations that took place on the 29 November gave both parties a chance to take stock and reassess each other claims and response so far.

More meetings were scheduled on:

• 9 December - Qantas EBA 9 meeting
• 15 December - Qantas EBA 9 Meeting

EBA8 expires on 30 June 2010 but continues to operate until it is replaced.

The National Delegates meeting also selected the ASU Qantas EBA 9 National Negotiating Team (Qantas EBA 9 National Negotiating Team brochure).

Keep up to date

To be kept up to date with the campaign, watch for bulletins on this website or subscribe to our airlines list.

You can also stay connected with the campaign via the Qantas EBA 9 Twitter feed (now our general Airlines Twitter account).

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