Fair Work Australia has approved a deal between Qantas and its engineers’ union that will give workers a three per cent pay rise for the next three years.
The agreement, reached last month after a damaging labour dispute, also allows Qantas to introduce extended hours rosters more easily and gives workers near the end of their careers more options to transition into retirement through part time work and job sharing.
In a statement, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce called the deal a “relief” after a year of industrial action by the engineers’ and two other unions that led to the controversial grounding of the airline’s fleet in October.
“This is a positive outcome that will allow Qantas to move forward with certainty and allow our customers to continue to book with confidence,” Joyce said. “The union cannot take any industrial action before 2015.
“The determination from Fair Work Australia does not contain any of the restrictive demands that would have handed control of parts of the airline to the union however it provides reasonable pay increases to our workers,” he added.
Qantas remains in binding arbitration with its pilots’ union and Transport Workers Union. The unions have sought job security clauses, citing concerns that Qantas will outsource work to Asia as it seeks to cut costs.
