Qantas offer doesn’t fly

QANTAS international cabin crew have overwhelmingly rejected a new four-year pay deal, that sought to freeze wages for two years and roster staff on more standby shifts.

Of the 2561 employees eligible to vote in the ballot, 2336 had their say with almost 97.5 per cent, or 2277 voting no.

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia had sought to delay the ballot until more negotiations could take place but the Fair Work Commission allowed the vote to proceed last week. FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said the decisive result should send a message to Qantas that “taking advantage of a pandemic and employees that have been stood down for 20 months was not acceptable”.

“When other professions are being rewarded with pay increases or Covid payments, international cabin crew are having conditions stripped and no recognition for the risks of Covid exposure,” said Ms O’Toole.

Among the most concerning changes was the increase in standby shifts, to include those cabin crew who had just returned from parental leave, she said.

The new EBA also sought to end the payment of meal allowances in cash in foreign countries, because of the difficulty of facilitating such transactions overseas.

Qantas had proposed to pay the allowances directly into employees’ bank accounts in arrears, along with other allowances.

Ms O’Toole said she hoped Qantas would come back to the negotiating table rather than dig in their heels and terminate the agreement.

In a note to employees, Qantas executive cabin crew manager Rachel Yangoyan said the ballot’s result was “a disappointing outcome”.

“The offer we put to you was fair and reasonable. It was also the best offer we could make especially given the devastating impact this pandemic has had on our business and the entire aviation industry,” Ms Yangoyan said.

“To be clear the need to make changes to our business to support our recovery is real.

From here, we will consider what other options remain. We will come back to you early in the new year to discuss next steps.”

The result came as Qantas’s sold-out first flight from Melbourne to Delhi departed, packed with passengers seeking to reunite with their families for Christmas.

Along with Sydney-Delhi, the new route has been in huge demand with almost all flights fully booked across all cabins in December and forward bookings well ahead of initial forecasts.

Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said it normally took 12 months to sell out flights on a new international route, but the Delhi flights had achieved that within hours.

“It just goes to show how much pent-up demand there is for travel, especially from people wanting to see family and friends after borders were closed for so long,” Mr David said.

He said Qantas expected India to be an “incredibly important market” as international travel recovered.