2025 is going to be a huge year for USU members in the airlines industry. The enterprise agreements for Qantas mainline, Qantaslink Group 1 and Rex all expire next year, which means that bargaining will reopen for new and improved enterprise agreements.

We’ve heard from members that they’re ready to take up the fight for better pay and conditions, with many saying they’re prepared to go on strike, so it’s important to know your rights regarding protected industrial action.

What is protected industrial action?

When people hear the words “industrial action” they usually take this to mean workers go on strike. However, that’s only one form of industrial action.

Types of industrial action can include, but aren’t limited to, going on strike, working to rule, refusing to work overtime, and more creative actions such as covering up company logos on your work uniforms or making public announcements on the company loudspeaker. For example, some of our Qantas delegates have suggested that members can in our ports can make announcements on the loudspeaker that they’re taking industrial action for better pay and conditions.

When you take protected industrial action, your employer can’t take adverse action against you, such as taking disciplinary action against you or terminating your employment.

Before you can take protected industrial action to go on strike, the union must:

  • Be in the process of bargaining for an enterprise agreement
  • Apply to the Fair Work Commission for a protected action ballot
  • Hold a secret ballot
  • Give your employer 3 clear days’ notice of the industrial action

Remember, you must be a union member to vote in a protected action ballot! Also, non-union members aren’t protected if their employer wants to take disciplinary action against them for participating in a strike.

However, sometimes you can win better pay and conditions without ever having to go on strike or take any industrial action.

The pre-strike gambit – just the threat of going on strike can be enough!

Recently, USU members employed under the Qantaslink Group 2 enterprise agreement achieved massive wins in their new enterprise agreement, which is set to go to a vote soon. Members are set to receive pay increases in the range of at least $8,000-20,000, and it was all down to one thing: high member numbers!

Our USU bargaining representatives put in an incredible amount of work to recruit new members in their teams, gather feedback regarding the bargaining, and report back to members about the progress of negotiations. This meant that Qantas was constantly reminded of our growing member numbers, which made them increasingly nervous that our members might go on strike if they didn’t come back with a satisfactory offer.

Qantas went from saying that reclassifying whole teams of workers would be too difficult in this current enterprise agreement, to agreeing to reclassify three whole teams of workers and agree to a higher than their standard 3% pay increase for all workers. Qantas realised that our members are so crucial to their operation that if even one of our teams went on strike, their whole operation would shut down! This gave us an enormous amount of bargaining power, so members were able to make massive gains in this enterprise agreement as a result.

It’s all a numbers game, so now is the best time to encourage your workmates to join the USU to help the fight for better pay and conditions!

Don’t forget to claim your Sign Up a Mate $50 thank you payment if you sign up a colleague to the USU.

If you aren’t currently a member, you can join today by visiting usu.org.au/join