Aviation firefighters are set to walk away with pay rise and penalty rate packages totalling more than 17% over three years after federal employer Airservices Australia moved to head off airport strikes by putting a bulked-up enterprise agreement offer to the aviation branch of the United Firefighters Union Australia (UFUA).
In a major defeat for the Australian Public Service Commission, Airservices has offered a raft of concessions and increased allowances to firies to try and get the deal over the line before airports are disrupted through protected industrial strike action, with overtime the big mover in the proposed deal.
The offer is highly significant because it defines where the real wage high water mark is for federal employers after a big sell by some unions that the broad APS wage rise deal of 11.2% over three years was as good as it got, especially after a right to work from home was factored in.
While the offer is specific to the employer and representatives of Airservices employees, it sets a baseline outside the APS’ so-called desk jobs.
While the APSC technically gets to keep its dignity intact, by maintaining its 11.2% service-wide wage increase ceiling struck with the Community and Public Sector Union, the extra cash has come pouring out of other increases in allowances, penalties, loadings and all manner of other industrial minutiae for the aviation firies.
The tale of the tape starts with a $6,000 cash sign-on bonus payable to either wages or superannuation according to United Firefighters Union Aviation Branch communications to members obtained by The Mandarin.
On the overtime front, rates increase from 1.5 times ordinary rates to 1.85 times, an increase of 23.3%, with meal allowances coming along for the ride on the extra hours.
Minimum call-out paid times also move up under the offer, and go from three hours to four hours, an increase of 33.3%.
All other “allowances, reimbursements and bonuses” also rise by 11.2%.
Another major win is that between 65-70 new positions at “fire commander level” will be created under the offer, meaning that the extra positions demanded to cover shortfalls have come across the line.
The UFUA also gets a substantially increased presence at the management table.
One of the more hard-fought points won is that “where overtime continuous with the last regular rostered shift of the day is worked, employees will continue to be paid overtime and remain on duty until the start of the next regular rostered shift. They can choose to leave work when the overtime is complete and not receive further payment.”
The agreement effectively nixes the current situation where some airlines running habitually late get to land jets without fire crews at the ready, because rosters don’t allow for it.
But the bigger takeaway is that unions representing federal staff outside the CPSU can shift their focus to compensation away from the headline figure to allowances, penalties and loadings that will be much harder to wind back.
In the broad, federal public sector unions entering negotiations bowled up an ambit 20% wage increase demand. The deal between the CPSU and the APSC landed at 11.2%, inclusive of a flexible work condition.
For federal unions outside the CPSU, the +17% offer achieved by the UFUA will be a benchmark.
The difference, assuming 11.2% vs 17%, is 5.8 percentage points. This is likely to cause some introspection.
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