On Thursday, 23 March 2017 the ASU and TWU held a further meeting with Dnata management about the new company (AHSA) as well as your current EBA’s.
This meeting was also to receive information that we requested from the company at the meeting with your delegates on 15 March 2017.
Information Received.
The meeting commenced with the company providing us with an overview of where it says Dnata is not competitive. They also provided us with the overall number of labour hire employees that are currently engaged. We also spoke about the financial reports that were provided prior to us arriving at the meeting.
Whilst this information provided an overview it became apparent that further detail was required to have a more informative discussion. We have therefore scheduled another meeting with dnata to receive the additional information that we require for next week.
AHSA
The unions requested that the company withdraw its application for the AHSA agreement and negotiate with the unions on your current EBA’s. Unfortunately dnata have refused to withdraw its application for the new second rate EBA.
We have clearly advised dnata that we will strongly oppose the certification of the AHSA agreement (as well as the Altara agreement). We further indicated that we see this as a direct attack on your terms and conditions of employment and that we will fight to ensure that there is not a race to the bottom at the expense of you and more broadly all hard working people in the airline industry.
Some good news.
The company has agreed to commence negotiations for the Ramp and Cargo EBA and will put the relevant process in place to commence bargaining. This is an important step towards having some proper discussions around the company position and your current conditions of employment.
Additionally the ASU advised that we were prepared to bring forward the negotiations of the passenger services EBA’s so a clear direction could be set sooner rather than later for your ongoing conditions of employment. We believe that this will allow for informed and educated longer term planning by agreeing on the wages and conditions which allows for the company to budget and plan longer term.
We say the company should do this in good faith rather than trying to slash and burn conditions in the underhanded way that they are attempting to do.
The company is considering our offer of commencing bargaining for the PAX EBA’s earlier and will respond at next weeks scheduled meeting.
Keep your eye on the ball!
Although we have been having discussions with dnata this does not mean that we should take our eye off the ball regarding AHSA.
This is still a very live and real threat.
The company is still pursuing the AHSA agreement in the Fair Work Commission.
Dnata has been warned.
We have made it very clear to dnata that we will not be taking a backward step until the AHSA agreement is killed off.
We will fight them whenever and wherever we have to with whatever tools we have available to us.
You need to stay strong and stay ready, we will be calling on members to get involved in various activities to help win this campaign.
The future if AHSA and Altara get their way!
There is no doubt that AHSA (and Altara) will be a direct threat to you and the broader airline industry. It's time that we all stood up and stopped unscrupulous employers from using workers like pawns. It suffer whilst the decision makers continue to line their pockets and fail to hold themselves responsible or accountable.
It's time to fight back and tell them that enough is enough!
Next Steps
We will report back to members following the next meeting on 30 March.
Meanwhile, members need to remain active and united and ensure their workmates are also ASU members. This may be a long and complex dispute and we can win if we are strongly supported by our members.
If you’re not a member of the union then seriously it's time to get on board, this is it people, it doesn't get more serious than this, it's time to join. You can join online at www.asu.asn.au/asujoin
Got any questions?
If you have any questions about the proposed Agreement please contact your local ASU organiser or delegate (download the full bulletin below for details)
Dnata Bulletin, 24 March 2017