Airport firefighters have moved swiftly to resume industrial action after a brief truce called over Easter passed.
April 15 is the day fresh strikes will commence, with the firies union and its employer Airservices Australia trading accusations over safety standards and industrial tactics.
The resumption of hostilities proper means everyday travelling Australians, as well as politicians and public servants, are set to feel the cold shiver of disruption in the autumn air, as the United Firefighters Union Aviation Branch (UFUAV) continues to try and force the hand of government to come up with a better offer on pay, staff numbers and conditions.
While the industrial ruckus at the surface level is between the union and commercially-operated government enterprise Airservices, the nexus of the dispute is the 11.2% public sector-wide pay deal now being forcibly pushed onto non-APS organisations as part of federal workplace relations policy.
The pay increase number is based on the deal the Community and Public Sector Union struck with the Australian Public Service Commission that has flowed onto workplaces represented by several other large unions that do not accept the deal.
The UFUA has also pounced on a cache of internal Airservices documents extracted by senator Tony Sheldon through questions on notice during senate estimates that the union says demonstrate that passengers using 13 major Australian airports face an “extreme” risk, while “air travellers faced a high risk at the 14 remaining airports across Australia, including Sydney, Canberra, and Hobart.”
Senator Sheldon is the immediate past national secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union, best known for its recent successful litigation against Qantas’ illegal sacking of staff and forcing Uber Eats to temper its hardline stance on delivery rider conditions.
The “Task Resource Analysis” (TRA) assessments, flushed out through the senate estimates committee process, are used to help evaluate and determine firefighting personnel levels across different scenarios, one of the reasons the documents become a piping-hot potato during bargaining.
“Internal documents found that the safety of air travellers was being threatened due to a range of resource and personnel shortages,” Wes Garrett, UFUAV branch secretary, said.
“These resource shortages include a lack of key personnel to operate breathing apparatus, shortages of firefighting agents to suppress multiple incidents, insufficient personnel and vehicles to protect both sides of a crashed aircraft, a lack of personnel for effective fire ground command and control, and a lack of procedural control at Australia’s airports.
“Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.”
What the documents, also reveal is that the Task Resource Analysis (TRA) is at least partly informed by consultation with the UFU, with the Questions on Notice also documenting that “62 pinch points were prioritised for resolution within the next 12-18 months, including some necessitating consultation under the ARFFS Enterprise Agreement”.
According to the documents, “the next 12-18 months” dates back to 2022, although when is unclear.
What is more clear is that the debate and analysis over resourcing seem to have overlapped with APS-wide bargaining because of the delays and impacts of COVID on the aviation sector, which is a bit like hitting burning oil with water.
Meanwhile, employer Airservices is fighting its corner, and arguably the APSC’s, on the industrial relations front.
“Airservices Australia has learned that the United Firefighters Union of Australia Aviation Branch (UFUAV) plans to impose work stoppages at airports across Australia from April 15 as part of a campaign of protected industrial action in pursuit of a 20% pay rise,” an Airservices spokesperson told The Mandarin.
“These stoppages, on which Airservices is seeking clarification, threaten to disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Australians who are still enjoying the school holidays, which have just begun in the ACT, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania.
“Announcement of the stoppages, for which the UFUAV has not officially notified Airservices, threatens to cause disruption to the travelling public and follows notification of an indefinite ban on overtime commencing 5 April,” the Airservices spokesperson said.
The Airservices spokesperson said the industrial dispute “has nothing to do with staffing levels, which are monitored and regulated by CASA as the aviation safety regulator.”
“Airservices has sufficient ARFF personnel to meet our regulatory obligations and is investing $1 billion over the next 10 years in equipment and facilities for our ARFF crews.”
Which is all great, except that the now-government senator extracting the documentation from the government employer is not that long out of the trenches and will most likely never be a member of Qantas’ Chairman’s Lounge, unlike most other elected representatives.
Frontline federal workers, including the Australian Federal Police as well as electricians, plumbers, mechanics and engineers are all contesting the APSC’s wage deal struck with the CPSU.
The 20% claim is largely uniform across the federal public sector and where the CSSU started its negotiations.
Sometimes the sky really is the limit.
READ MORE:
Federal cops, aviation firefighters mount joint operation to hose government over pay
