In January, the ASU lodged a dispute in the Fair Work Commission following the company abandoning agreed rostering principles over the Christmas holiday period.
Following lodgement of the dispute we continued to meet with the Company and work through the issues.
Key issues
The key issues to resolve included: how employees can indicate their preference to work or take SLWOP, how Jetstar allocate shifts to employees (including the notice period when staff are required to return from stand down), and how Jetstar propose to deal with short notice stand downs.
Resolution
We have been able to resolve this dispute by reaching agreement around a few key issues, including:
1. Rosters. Jetstar have agreed to revert to publishing projected rosters on a fortnightly basis from 20 March 2021, with 7 days’ notice. We will continue to seek a return to publishing rosters as early as possible.
2. SLWOP. Jetstar will cease running application processes for Special Leave Without Pay (SLWOP) because Jetstar expects that from April 2021 most, or all, employees will be able to be rostered on for their minimum hours.
3. Stand Down triggers. Should circumstances unexpectedly change again, Jetstar will immediately consult the ASU about impacts to upcoming schedules and available useful work, and how to implement any stand downs.
4. Stand Down recalls – aka “short notice stand-ups”. We know that members were finding it difficult when they were recalled to work at short notice and for short periods of time. Jetstar have agreed to clear procedures that will be followed if employees are required to be recalled from stand down to cover a shift. The procedures are laid out for you in the next part of this Bulletin.
5. Annual Leave approvals. To resolve staff issues with access to annual leave, Jetstar will implement a new process so that historical applications that have been rejected can now be reconsidered. Jetstar intends to accept leave applications in the order they were received until leave lines are filled.
Staff who previously submitted an application that was rejected or closed, should resubmit it and provide a copy of the original application receipt – Jetstar will use the original application date to determine the order of approval.
The ASU also expects to be meeting regularly to discuss annual leave and how average hours are calculated in the future. We will advise members when these meeting commence
6. Annual Leave Loading*. In circumstances where no projected roster exists – including when a staff member is stood down – your EBA provides a leave loading of 17.5%. To resolve the ASU dispute, Jetstar have agreed to pay a higher average of 28% for all annual leave taken where, due to a reduction in useful work and a number of stand downs existing in a port, there is no projected roster for employees.
Jetstar will be reviewing loading paid since 1 April 2020. If a staff member has been paid any leave loading at the rate of 17.5% due to the absence of projected rosters, they will receive a top up to revised amount of 28% - an additional 10.5% on the base rate of annual leave hours already paid.
*Note: When stand downs are no longer in use at a staff members port, then the applicable penalties on a projected roster will remain be payable.
7. Ex gratia payment for 26 December 2020 – 29 January 2021. Jetstar has acknowledged that circumstances from 26 December 2020 to 29 January 2021 (the Post-Christmas cancellations), severely impacted staff who hoped to be returning to work a full-schedule but were instead forced to accept less than their minimum hours of engagement with little notice. Jetstar has therefore decided to make a payment to help compensate for the loss of income over this period.
Amounts will be paid based on an average of potential additional earnings an employee would have received over the 5 week period, in each port. Each amount identified will be an ex gratia average payment offer, and not based on individual circumstances.
Jetstar anticipate commencing payment of annual leave loading and ex-gratia payments in mid-April. We will confirm the exact dates as soon as possible.
Procedures for Stand Down recalls
Recall from Stand Down – greater than 48 hours’ notice:
- Ground Resource Allocators (GRAs) attempt to contact impacted staff to advise the recall from stand down.
- Where they are not able to speak to the employee such as where the employee is on currently on shift, the phone is not answered, and the call is not returned within a short period of time, then written communication is also used. Written communication is also sent between 7pm-10pm.
- Where no further communication is received, it is assumed that the allocation is acceptable (given that the GRA team need to finalise the roster changes).
- If the impacted employee does subsequently advise their manager that they are unavailable due to limited reasons (which may include caring responsibilities or secondary employment), then the GRAs will move to recall the next person.
- We do note however that at some point the work must be allocated to an employee. It is unreasonable to require the GRAs to continue to work through the list to the point where a shift remains uncovered up until the last moment.
Recall from Stand Down – less than 48 hours’ notice:
- GRAs provide written notification of work being available to multiple employees
- Impacted employee receives NIL 48 penalty for the recalled shift/s.
- Where no response is received from the employees notified, the GRA then attempts to contact the employee via phone call, starting with those employees who have indicated availability in webroster.
- If the impacted employee subsequently advises their manager that they are unavailable due to limited reasons (which may include caring responsibilities or secondary employment), then the GRAs will move to recall the next person.
- We do note however that at some point the work must be allocated to an employee. It is unreasonable to require the GRAs to continue to work through the list to the point where a shift remains uncovered up until the last moment.
ASU Organisers:
| Branch | Name | Contact |
| QSNA | Neil Henderson | (07) 3844 5300 |
| Qld Together | Megan Denny | 1800 177 244 |
| NSW US branch | Thomas Russell | 0419 761 320 |
| Vic PS | Victor Jose | 0425 753 756 |
| SA/NT | Lesley Till | 0497 555 875 |