The ASU Jetstar National Negotiating team (NNT) met with management representatives for our 6th EBA negotiation meeting on 11th December and we have given the company a clear message that it is time to get serious about our negotiations and put an effort into trying to resolve the differences between us.
To this end your NNT honed in on our most important claims and tried very hard to understand the company feedback to get an outcome that will be of benefit to ASU members. We know that job security, consultation, information about work changes, the wage increase, hours for part timers, rostering, the classification structure and protecting what we have are among our top concerns and we have again hammered this home to the company. We just need the company to realise it is time to respond more favourably to our issues.
Consultation is a key issue
We also took the opportunity at our meeting to tell the company about what we thought about the lack of consultation about the review that had been in progress at Avalon airport. The fact that staff had to read about the review and the possibility that they could lose their jobs in the newspaper was unacceptable and hardly fair on those affected. The follow-up after the article in the newspaper was also appalling with no staff contact at all. The media got treated better than staff affected.
This is not the way to treat hard working frontline staff was our clear message to the management representatives which included the head of ground operations. Your NNT also reminded the company of their obligations to consult the union in such circumstances which also had not happened.
With uncertain times possibly ahead across the Qantas group, including Jetstar, your NNT emphasized that consultation about change, restructures and redundancies is a key issue for staff.
We tried to quiz the company reps about how Jetstar thought it would be affected by the recent 1000 job cuts announcement across the Qantas Group – they were unable to shed any light at this stage on if there will be any effects. The ASU is participating in an all Qantas Group unions' meeting convened by the ACTU with the senior executives of the Qantas Group on 18th December – we will be raising a number of issues including Jetstar at that meeting and will report back.
What's next?
Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 19th December and we hope the company will come back with a revised position that will enable us to finalise a new agreement as soon as possible. If the company does not do this we will have to have meetings of members in the near future to determine our next steps. Watch out for our next bulletin for an update or contact your local NNT member or ASU organiser.
Need more information?
Get in touch with your local ASU organiser or delegate (download the full bulletin below for details).
Jetstar EBA 5 Bulletin - 13 December 2013