Virgin pilots' deal adjusts relativities

[Matthew Chisholm]

Virgin pilots' deal adjusts relativities


08 April 2013 10:45am

A new three-year deal for Virgin Australia's 1000 short-haul flight crew provides substantial pay rises for pilots of the smallest and largest planes to improve relativities, addresses job security and clarifies seniority.

The deal, voted up by an 86.5% majority in a ballot that was counted last week, follows pilots rejecting an earlier proposal in September last year.

Virgin's group executive, workplace relations and business integration, Richard Tanner, said the vote was a "great outcome" and congratulated bargaining representatives for the mature way in which they had negotiated the deal.

It provides a 20% rise for about 200 pilots of the Embraer aircraft, the smallest jets (carrying about 100 passengers) in the Virgin fleet. Embraer crew get an 8% rise from yesterday's approval, followed by 5% in July, 4% in July next year and 3% in July 2015.

Captains of wide-body Airbus 330s, the largest planes (carrying about 270 to 310 passengers) in the airline's short and medium-haul fleet, get 13.5%, comprising a 9% upfront rise, while senior first officers get an 8.5% rise. All A330 flight crew (about 100 in all) then get rises of 5.65%, 5.6% and 5.6%.

The 700 or so Boeing 737 flight crew receive 4% upfront, then 3.5% and two instalments of 3% (the 737s carry 140 to 180 passengers).

The revised rates have been designed to lift Embraer flight crew rates closer to those of their colleagues at the controls of 737s, while raising the rates of A330 crew closer to those of pilots of the B777 aircraft (which carry about 360 passengers) in the airline's long-haul fleet, resulting in a 15% pay differential between pilots of each aircraft in the hierarchy.

Embraer captains' pay will rise from $152,710 before yesterday's rise to $185,504 in July 2015, after the deal's final pay rise, while 737 captains' pay will increase from $190,889 to $217,986 and A330 captains from $199,369 to $256,146.

The deal covering the airline's long-haul pilots, struck in 2011, provides for Boeing 777 pilots to be paid between $217,500 and $286,000 a year (see clause 21 of the long-haul agreement), before rates rise on July 1 this year.

However, the company prevailed in refusing to back pay employees to the middle of last year, when they would have expected an annual pay rise, saving it about nine months of an increased rate (the pilots received their last pay rise in July 2011, under the terms of clause 2.1.2 of the 2007 agreement).

Deal commits Virgin to "maximising" job security

The agreement, which applies for three years from approval by FWC, commits the airline to "maximising" job security for pilots.

"In doing so, Virgin Australia will not outsource its Pilot labour and/or Australian based flying to any other company or entity within Australia or overseas and will maximise the circumstances in which Australian based flying is performed by Australian based Pilots covered by this Agreement", the job security clause reads.

But it notes the commitment isn't intended to interfere with the company's long-haul agreement, arrangements for NZ-based and Skywest pilots, partnerships with other airlines or engagement of other carriers "to supplement capacity for a finite period".

The agreement also says the company's acquisition and growth of Skywest and Tiger, plus expansion of NZ operations, are not intended to be "at the expense" of pilots employed under the deal.

The agreement also:

•Provides for pilots to be granted a guaranteed block of between one and two weeks of their annual leave for their wedding or commitment ceremony, as long as they provide four months' notice, with requests to be granted on a "first in, first approved basis" and unavailable during Christmas and Easter. The agreement says the provision "is designed to make sure you get your wedding day off only" and that if pilots have already arranged annual leave for their wedding then the provision isn't intended to cover honeymoons;

•Enables flight crew to nominate two "priority days off", to be taken as single days or together, that are "locked in" once approved (see clause 18.6);

•Requires Virgin to give flight crew 12 weeks notice if it intends to direct them to take annual leave;

•Widens the activities eligible for duty hours "credits" to encompass some ground duty and simulator-based training;

•Prescribes that negotiations for the next agreement will begin nine months before this one expires;

•Defines "major change" that triggers the airline's consultation obligations;

•Provides that pilots will sit in economy class when travelling for work purposes, but in an exit row or as close as possible to the front of the aircraft, in an aisle or window seat (unions had sought business class travel);

•Gives pilots the right to view their personnel file and to seek a review of content they believe is inaccurate;

•Prescribes that because of the $30,000 cost of obtaining the endorsements pilots need before they can fly aircraft, the airline will have the right to "freeze" such pilots on the aircraft type on which they were certified for 30 months, and to require pilots who resign to repay $30,000, reducing proportionally on a pro rata basis over 30 months. Virgin will be able to freeze pilots who have upgraded to captain for 20 months and to require them to pay back $20,000 if they resign (with the same pro rata arrangements); and

•Provides that new pilots in their first 12 months of service will be paid a "training salary" $15,000 below the entry level first officer's rate and Virgin will be able to freeze these trainees for 30 months on their aircraft type and require them to repay $15,000 pro rata if they resign); and

•Ensures the airline will recognise up to two delegates from pilots unions and allow them a "reasonable amount" of paid time to perform union work, provided Virgin work takes precedence; and

•Provides 10 weeks paid maternity leave, two weeks paid paternity leave and three weeks paid adoption leave.
The company is yet to submit the agreement to FWC for approval.

The intense rivalry between the two pilots unions covering Virgin flight crew has continued throughout the negotiation process, but VIPA and the AFAP last month reached agreement on a new seniority list to cover the domestic, international and NZ-based pilots, which will be provided for in a deed, but referred to in the agreement (see clause 53 and appendix four).

VIPA, which endorsed the latest deal but campaigned against the previous one, said in a statement that the new deal was a "quantum leap" from the last-generation agreement, which was made before the union's inception (see Related Article).

VIPA executive director Simon O'Hara said career progression is now coherent across the Virgin group after the negotiation of the integrated pilot list.

He said the final job security clause doesn't go as far as VIPA wanted, but is
a great building block for the future".

The job security clause is the first time that a Virgin Australia pilot union has sought through negotiation some form of certainty regarding Virgin Australia's pilots' employment, he said.

O'Hara continued that the previous agreement voted down by VIPA members last year was "rushed out with indecent haste" and lacked the "basic spit and polish" required for any agreement or legal document.

AFAP executive director Simon Lutton said the agreement voted up by flight crew provided a modest improvement in conditions over the rejected deal, but at the cost of nine months backpay (the deal knocked back last October backpaid pilots to July, whereas the later version removed backpay altogether).

He said this represented many thousands of dollars for some of the union's members.

AFAP negotiator Captain David Booth said in a statement that the integrated list would ensure all Virgin group pilots had access to flying based on a common system.

Source: Workplace Express