Qantas to dump enterprise agreement for 2500 cabin crew in a bid to reach new deal

Qantas has enraged unions with its move to tear up an enterprise agreement and force 2500 flight attendants onto a much cheaper deal.

Qantas cabin crew face being stripped of hard fought gains after the airline applied to terminate their current enterprise agreement.

Qantas has inflamed unions and blindsided flight attendants by seeking to tear up the current work agreement for cabin crew after they voted down a new pay deal from the airline.

The application to terminate the long-haul cabin crew agreement would see 2500 flight attendants forced on to the “modern award”, resulting in the loss of significant pay and conditions until a new deal was negotiated.

Qantas International chief executive Andrew David insisted the airline had no other option after cabin crew voted overwhelmingly against a new four-year deal in December.

He said the deal represented Qantas’s “best offer” and incorporated several union demands, but was rejected by 97 per cent of cabin crew.

“Asking to terminate the current agreement is the last thing we want, but we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Mr David said. “We’re seeking termination because we can’t effectively run our business without the rostering changes we desperately need to properly restart our international network in a post-Covid world.”

The key changes being sought by Qantas centre on the ability of long-haul crew to work on more than one aircraft type on inter­national routes operated by A330s, A380s and B787s.

Currently, about one in five flight attendants work only on a single aircraft type under historical employment arrangements, which the airline considered unworkable in the recovery period.

Mr David conceded a shift to the modern award for cabin crew would not be to their advantage, with pay and conditions significantly less than what they were receiving. “We clearly don’t want to cut people’s pay. Unfortunately, the process doesn’t let us pick and choose which bits of the current agreement are terminated in order to get the crucial rostering flexibility we need,” he said.

“I know our people will be disappointed that it has come to this, and so are we. We’re open to putting the same deal that was rejected back on the table but that would require a change of heart from a union that has continually misrepresented the facts.”

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia, Transport Workers Union and ACTU slammed the Qantas move, accusing the airline of punishing employees who had already experienced considerable hardship during the pandemic.

FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said flight attendants were the “heroes” of the crisis, putting their own health on the line to repatriate thousands of Australians stranded overseas. “They have been on the frontline of the pandemic since the early days, and have faced stand-downs up to 20 months, far longer than any other industry,” Ms O’Toole said.

“Workers have negotiated in good faith since June (but) after one strong vote against an unfair agreement that asked too much of crew and their families, Qantas … uses it as an excuse to attack pay and conditions.”

She said the Australian public should be “outraged” by Qantas’s behaviour after taxpayers footed the bill for the airline to maintain its skilled workforce through the international retention payment.

“It’s a disgrace. We are bitterly disappointed and will be fighting this in the Fair Work Commission,” Ms O’Toole said.

ACTU national president Michele O’Neil called on Qantas to “withdraw this threat … Qantas has received billions in taxpayer funds over the last two years. Now they are threatening workers to try and force through a deal, slash wages and keep more of our money for themselves.”

TWU assistant secretary Nick McIntosh said the application was “appalling behaviour” by Qantas management.