Almost 60 USU/ASU delegates from all states and territories met in Melbourne on 5 February 2020 to commence preparations for bargaining in Qantas Airways and QFIT. This will be the 12th ASU enterprise agreement (EBA) with these companies. It is an important EBA that will cover the wages and conditions of one of the largest groups of employees in the Qantas Group.

At our meeting your USU/ASU delegates considered the over 1000 responses that were received in our EBA 12 survey and the results were analysed in depth to understand what people want to achieve in the upcoming negotiations. Delegates endorsed a recommendation for our ASU EBA 12 claim which now needs to be considered by USU/ ASU members.

Meetings are being organised in all locations to consider this draft claim before the claim is given to Qantas. Watch out for local meeting dates and times.

Our USU/ASU EBA 12 National Negotiating Team (NNT) was elected by the delegates. The team comes from a range of areas in Qantas and NNT members work in a diverse range of jobs in different classifications. Full time, part time, and job share staff are represented on the team, there are some new faces and some old hands who have been on the team before all are very keen to represent members and get the best deal.

Qantas bargaining representatives notice
The Fair Work Act requires Qantas to provide all employees who are to be covered by the proposed EBA 12 with a letter outlining your rights. We expect Qantas to send out the letter within the next few weeks. Negotiators of EBAs are called “bargaining representatives”.

Members of the USU/ASU do not have to do anything about the appointment of a bargaining representative – the USU/ASU is automatically your bargaining representative and the USU/ASU NNT is made up of USU/ASU delegates and officials who will conduct the negotiations for USU/ASU members.

What next?

It is important to attend your local meeting to consider the delegates’ recommendation about the claim. We will also provide members with a detailed understanding of the EBA survey results so watch out for details.If you have any questions about this email or need any assistance at work, please contact your USU Organiser Thomas Russell on 0419 761 320 or via email at trussell@usu.org.au