TRANSPORT WORKERS’ UNION REJECTS QANTAS OFFER

SYDNEY, 19 October 2011: The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) has rejected an offer for new
enterprise bargaining agreement for around 3,800 Qantas employees.

The offer, which was made yesterday during a meting between the airline and the union, included increases in pay and conditions for baggage handlers, ground handlers, catering staff and other transport employees.

The union has also notified Qantas late this afternoon that it will take one hour stop work meetings in Brisbane and Melbourne on Tuesday 26 October.

Qantas Group Executive Operations Lyell Strambi said Qantas was disappointed in this latest turn of events.

“This was a good deal for our employees and it’s disappointing that the union has rejected the offer and indicated it will continue industrial action which will cause further disruption to passengers,” Mr Strambi said.

“We have tried extremely hard to do a deal and we made the union an offer that was well in excess of the recent agreement that the TWU reached with Virgin.

“We tried to compromise on a number of matters however we just cannot agree to all of their demands. In particular, demands that would make Qantas less efficient and compromise our ability to compete effectively.”

Transport Workers’ Union employees at Qantas are the highest paid in the aviation industry and this agreement would have seen their wages and benefits increase even further.

The current agreement expired at the end of June this year. Qantas has been in negotiations with the TWU since May and has met with the union repeatedly since then.

The one-hour stop work meeting in Brisbane on Tuesday 26 October will occur between 7am-8am and the stop work meeting in Melbourne will occur between 8am-9am.

Qantas is currently assessing the impact the industrial action will have on passengers and as per previous strikes will contact customers on cancelled or significantly delayed services.

Earlier his month, Qantas reached an in-principle agreement with the union representing short-haul cabin crew which included a three per cent pay increases each year for three years.

Qantas also recently finalised a new agreement with the National Union of Workers which represents 360 storeworkers which included three per cent pay increases each year for three years.