Flight crew have been stood down due to the pause on the transtasman bubble. Photo / File
Flight crew have been stood down due to the pause on the transtasman bubble. Photo / File
Qantas and the union representing some of its New Zealand flight crew appear to be at loggerheads over who should be providing support to its 600 Jetconnect workers.
Qantas is in ongoing talks with the New Zealand Government over support options after its New Zealand subsidiary Jetconnect did not meetthe criteria for the August 2021 round of wage subsidy applications.
But E tū says it isn't the company's inability to qualify for the wage subsidy which is causing difficulties for staff but a "failure" by Qantas to adequately provide for its New Zealand-based crew.
Qantas says it is providing support to staff through individual check-in calls, working with a recruitment agency for secondary employment options and offering direct access to government support agencies.
Jetconnect, which employs New Zealand-based pilots and flight attendants to fly the transtasman route, previously received the wage subsidy in last year's level 4 lockdown and the subsequent August 2020 Auckland lockdown.
But the criteria for this round of the wage subsidy requires companies to declare a 40 per cent drop in revenue that is directly related to the rise in alert levels to level 3 or 4.
Jetconnect's revenue was hit before the lockdown after the Government announced it would shut the transtasman bubble on July 23 for an initial two months. Just over three weeks later New Zealand was plunged into an alert level 4 lockdown.
E tū's head of aviation, Savage, said when Covid hit in March last year Qantas announced that all its New Zealand-based operations would be shut down, and all crew made redundant – unless they agreed to adopt "Special Leave Without Pay" (SLWOP) provisions.
He said these stand-down arrangements were common under Australian industrial relations law and while some crew took the small redundancy payments, many opted to take the SLWOP and wait for things to improve.
Savage said since then the careers of those crew who stayed on hoping to fly again had remained uncertain, as the variation permitting SLWOP to continue has been in place ever since and is now currently due to end in December 2021.
While on SLWOP, crew are allowed to work other jobs and still accrue annual leave from Jetconnect.
But once they return to work, they can be stood down from work again with 14 days' notice which is what happened when the transtasman bubble closed again recently.
After being given their 14 days' notice, they received base pay for two weeks and a lump sum payment of around $1100. They can also choose to have their annual leave paid out as a lump sum or in instalments.
Savage said the on again, off again nature of work permitted by the agreement was a major issue with the company's long-term business model.
"An employment relationship creates an obligation to provide stable, decent work. If an employer can no longer do that, then they need to adequately compensate their workers.
"We fully understand the challenging environment of the Covid crisis, but if Jetconnect wants to retain skilled, committed cabin crew, then that comes at a cost.
Savage said in continuing to operate under the SLWOP model, Jetconnect had effectively "casualised" their cabin crew, transferring the risk to aviation workers rather than shoulder the burden itself.
"The company needs to step up and provide certainty for workers by seeing how it can assist New Zealand-based crew – at the very least by offering workers the choice of taking a full and proper redundancy package if it isn't able to provide more than sporadic or seasonal work."
Qantas' subsidiary Jetconnect has around 600 staff in New Zealand. Photo / File
A Qantas spokeswoman said it knew this was a very tough situation for its crew.
"Standing employees down when travel collapses due to factors outside our control isn't a decision we take lightly."
She said when Covid first impacted travel, Jetconnect cabin crew were offered the opportunity of a voluntary redundancy.
"Those who preferred to stay agreed to the Special Leave Without Pay arrangements through a full consultation process."
This arrangement was initially through to July 30, 21 and was then extended until December 31, 2021, through a consultation process with staff which the union was made aware of.
These arrangements included provisions for a stand-up and stand-down process.
The Qantas spokeswoman said it was in constant discussions with Government about borders and was strongly encouraging vaccine take-up.
In the meantime it was providing support to staff.
"We are providing resources and support to help our stood down crew including individual check-in calls, working with a recruitment agency for secondary employment options and offering direct access to government support agencies."
At the 1pm conference on Friday Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson announced an extension of the suspension of the transtasman bubble until mid to late November.
