Qantas has rejected claims being made by the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) about shaky pilot job security as “completely unfounded”.
AIPA has threatened industrial action amid heated negotiations with Qantas management over a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) for the airline’s international pilots. In a statement, Qantas said that the threat of industrial action “is part of the union’s posturing to get increased wages and conditions for international pilots as part of the EBA negotiations and to limit the ability of Qantas Group to compete with other airlines”.
The airline claims it has not made a pilot redundant in almost 40 years and there is no threat to job security for its pilots. While Qantas has said it would be “very disappointed” if industrial action threatened by AIPA went ahead, it has claimed that the union’s argument for a 2.5 per cent increase per year in pilot wages is in actual fact an 8.15 per cent increase per year once the classification table and travel claims were taken into account.
Qantas has also rejected demands from AIPA that only Qantas pilots should fly aircraft in other Qantas Group airlines, such as Jetstar and Jetconnect.“Jetstar is a separate company which is competing with other low-fare airlines – not with the premium service offered by Qantas,” the airline said.
AIPA members are meeting to discuss the option of taking industrial action.
