The ASU National Negotiating Team met with Qantas on 6 October 2004 to continue talks on our EBA. There was only good news on one front, on the rest of the issues - pay, better retirement benefits and improved conditions in the EBA the company maintains the view that they cannot afford the changes and they believe their offers on maternity leave and carers leave are as good as it gets.

But the good news is - the company is backing off its insane RDO proposal and will accept our proposal for a one off yearly individual buyout of accumulated RDOs on a voluntary basis. The conditions will be the same as in EBA V, i.e. you cannot sell off all RDOs, you must keep 2 RDOs as a minimum.

Reading the small print on maternity leave

We have continued to argue that the maternity leave, adoption leave and paternity leave initiatives should be in our EBA. Qantas wants it in policy because it makes it easier to change from their point of view - in an EBA a change requires employee agreement.

As it turns out, Qantas is not ruling out offsetting any government schemes against the improved work/life package in the future. Currently they are suggesting to us that to get these clauses in the EBA we will need to cop Qantas' ability to offset the leave against possible future government schemes.

It is not clear if this means the baby bonus which is set to increase next year. None of your negotiating team can recall this issue being mentioned in any of the company's announcements on 19 August 2004 - as always there is a catch and this proposal is not as it seems at first.

Work/Life balance update

As reported last bulletin Qantas will not discuss our claims for leave without pay, buying annual leave etc as an Executive Task Force is looking at these issues.

On adoption leave - we have asked Qantas to clarify their position on who can access this leave, in particular we believe fathers and same sex partners positions are not clear and should not be limited.

On carers leave - we want Qantas to expand the definition of "spouse" and explain how carers leave will operate if someone is hospitalised.

A better retirement

We want Qantas to consider putting Fund Choice in the EBA. Currently the only choice is the Qantas Super Fund. 99% of staff are in a defined benefit fund in this scheme and are unlikely to get choice anyway under the government's legislation.

We want some choice in the EBA so that the Qantas scheme remains strong and that good schemes are nominated as alternatives for those not in the defined benefits group, i.e. everyone who started post 1 July 2003.

Our Ansett experience shows us what can go wrong in super and we believe it is important to make sure staff are not exposed to a bevy on unscrupulous operators once choice is available.

We have said to Qantas that the Qantas Fund could be the default fund and that we should both agree on this in the EBA. If we don't then Qantas chooses which is the fund - there is nothing to stop them choosing any fund they like at anytime.

What's next?

We are meeting on the SPGs and QFIT proposals on 13 October 2004 and on the Load Control claims and the rest of the EBA on 25 October 2004. We will shortly have meetings to discuss what our next move will be.

For further information you can view a comprehensive breakdown of our claims and Qantas' response in the Related Documents section at the bottom of this news item.

Related Documents: