Ongoing industrial action spearheaded by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) has changed courses at the request of the Western Australia (WA) state government.
As reported by Mining.com.au earlier this week, the WA pilot stoush was anticipated to continue over the coming weekend, from yesterday (22 February 2024) through to Sunday (25 February 2024), as stalled wage negotiations continue to disrupt the local aviation sector.
However, the AFAP announced on 21 February 2024 it will suspend this latest wave of industrial action given the risk posed by ex-Tropical Cyclone Lincoln in northwest Western Australia to enable evacuation flights to potentially take place if needed.
According to the pilot’s union, WA state government Minister for Training and Workplace Development, Water, and Industrial Relations Simon McGurk spoke directly with a pilot representative from the AFAP negotiating team to request the suspension.
Senior Industrial Officer Chris Aikens says: “In light of this request from the state government, and with Network pilots clearly not wanting to place the public at any risk, the AFAP has written to the company to confirm that the 4-day stop work scheduled for 22 to 25 February will now not take place.”
It is with this in mind the AFAP has asked its members flying for Qantas (ASX:QAN)-owned subsidiary domestically in WA to return to work as normal flying passenger flights for QantasLink and charter flights for Network Aviation.
Aikens says: “The AFAP will monitor the situation regarding any possible future action once the current threat has passed. However, we remain open to meeting with the company in the hope that it can offer something that will be acceptable to this pilot group.”
However, the AFAP announced yesterday (22 February 2024) it has advised Network Aviation that a 24 hour stoppage of all work will take place on 28 February 2024.
The AFAP represents more than 90% of the commercial pilots employed by Network Aviation to fly both passenger transport and fly in, fly out (FIFO) and private charter aircraft in WA.
The pilot group is negotiating a new enterprise agreement to replace the Network Aviation Pilots Enterprise Agreement 2016 that expired on 31 October 2020.
With more than 5,500 members, the AFAP is the professional association and industrial organisation for commercial pilots in Australia flying domestically and internationally.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: AFAP
