Unions representing pilots at Tigerair Australia have called off plans for industrial action after reaching an in-principle agreement with low-cost carrier (LCC) over a new employment contract.
The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP), which represents about 75 per cent of Tigerair Australia pilots, said on Thursday the new enterprise agreement was agreed to late on Wednesday night.
As a result, the planned protected industrial action, where pilots would refuse to work outside of published rosters and not fly aircraft until all allowable defects have been resolved, slated to have taken place from Friday morning to Sunday night had been cancelled.
“We are very pleased that after more than a year of negotiation, we have now reached in-principle agreement at Tigerair,” AFAP executive director Simon Lutton said in a statement.
“We believe the new agreement is fair and reasonable and are happy the parties could work constructively to avoid industrial action.
“We will continue working with Tigerair to finalise an agreement document to be put to the pilot group.”
The AFAP said the full enterprise agreement would be distributed to pilots “in the coming weeks”.
The Virgin Australia-owned Tigerair Australia confirmed the planned protected industrial action had been called off.
“Tigerair Australia is pleased to confirm that industrial action planned for this weekend has been withdrawn and the airline will operate flights as scheduled,” the airline said in a statement on its website.
“Please plan to arrive for your flights as scheduled unless otherwise notified by Tigerair Australia.”
The AFAP had said previously the current agreement for Tigerair Australia pilots was “well below industry standards both in terms of pay and work-life balance”.
Tigerair Australia, which at December 31 had a fleet of 14 Airbus A320s and three Boeing 737-800s, flies to 13 domestic destinations.
