ASU members have raised a number of urgent concerns about the way rosters are being managed in local ports.
ASU officials met with Virgin today to raise your concerns including issues with unworkable roster patterns, unpredictable hours of work, ability to opt out of rosters, as well as recognition of Job Share and Flexible Work Arrangements.
We also made it clear that we expect that local management abide by what’s been agreed in national consultation meetings.
Staff have complained that the arrangements Virgin have discussed with the ASU and committed to providing to staff locally around resourcing during the pandemic are not being met at a local level.
Consultation meetings
The ASU will be meeting with Virgin again next week. We’ll be seeking a resolution to resourcing issues that will be as fair as possible.
We also believe that local rostering committees can be very effective right now – each state is affected by the pandemic in different ways and needs local solutions.
Virgin have committed to getting local consultation on rostering up and running before the end of RP2 which commences 25 January 2021.
LWOP and redundancies taking effect April
Prior to Christmas, the ASU was also in discussions with Virgin about the increasing demands on resourcing.
Members and ASU officials anticipated that demand would increase some months ago and low and behold, the work has returned for many ports.
In December, Virgin were regularly been in contact with staff taking LWOP about returning to work early.
An EOI was also sent to identify whether any staff with a redundancy taking effect in April 2021 would be keen to return to work – Virgin were not able to be clear about the details but were seeking interest.
Unfortunately, the EOI was not sent out at all ports and we are waiting for information from the results of the EOIs that will all be closed by the end of this week.
We will also be in a position to update ASU members on this matter once the results of all the EOIs are known.
Time to join the union!
If you are not yet an ASU member – it is not too late to join. Sign up now to make sure you are supported throughout this crisis: www.asu.asn.au/asujoin
ASU Organisers:
| State | Organiser | Contact |
| Qld Together | Peter Cattach | Airlines@together.org.au |
| NSW US | Clare Raffan | 0417 177 266 |
| Vic PS | Imogen Sturni | 0433 339 656 |
| SA/NT | Scott McFarlane | 0426 291 572 |