PIA HALTED WHILE FWC-MEDIATED TALKS UNDERWAY NEXT WEEK

Following yesterday's (30 October 2023) conference convened by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) and in accordance with its final recommendations (issued by the FWC today at 10:18am AWT today), the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) will not engage in any protected action this week as planned.

The parties discussed the issues currently preventing the parties concluding an agreement which the workforce will support.

During the discussions, Deputy President Binet and the parties formed the view that facilitation by the FWC of further bargaining is likely to assist the parties to resolve the outstanding bargaining issues.

The AFAP will attend in-person bargaining sessions facilitated by the FWC commencing on Tuesday 7 November 2023.

If necessary, the Commission will facilitate further sessions on Wednesday 8 November 2023, Thursday 9 November 2023 and Friday 10 November 2023.

AFAP members - who make up 90% of the pilot group at Network Aviation - have given an undertaking that they will not engage in any protected action until next week's bargaining sessions are completed.

Background:

The Australian Federation of Pilots (AFAP) represents 225 of the 250 commercial pilots employed by Qantas Group subsidiary Network Aviation to fly passenger transport (PT), and fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and private charter aircraft in Western Australia.

The AFAP had advised Qantas management of a two-day work stoppage on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

AFAP members - who make up over 90 per cent of the pilot group employed by Network Aviation - were to stop work from 0001 Wednesday 1 November to 23:59 Thursday 2 November 2023.

Pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking protected industrial action (PIA) with more than 99.5 per cent of AFAP's members at Network Aviation (90 per cent of the pilot group) voting to approve the taking of a range of legally protected industrial action that includes a number of work bans and work stoppages.

Pilots employed by Qantas subsidiary Network Aviation have been attempting to negotiate new enterprise agreements to replace the Network Aviation Pilots Enterprise Agreement 2016 (which expired 31 Oct 2020).

The AFAP is the only pilot union to have filed for PIA, and as such only AFAP members can participate in PIA if required.