QANTAS PILOTS WHAT IS AT ISSUE IN THE STRIKE: SAFETY OR PAY?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 16

QANTAS PILOTS WHAT IS AT ISSUE IN THE STRIKE: SAFETY OR PAY?

(By

JOE GLASCOTT

in the "Sydney Horning Herald"?

(Reprinted by arrangement)

Men earning incomes as high as 14,308 dollars (XNZ5723) a year can hardly claim to be poorly paid. Indeed, the top policymakers of the nation, the senior Ministers of Federal Cabinet, receive only 15,500 dollars (NZ6200) a year base salary. The striking Qantas pilots are therefore at a disadvantage in agitating for salary increases on the basis of wage injustices. The current rate for Qantas Grade 1 captains is 14,308 dollars and they have been offered an increase to 15,250 dollars (£NZ6IOO).

The pilots themselves admit that their salaries are high (although not as high as North American rates) and they claim that their strike would not have occurred on the issue of salaries alone. The salary offer by the company was capable of negotiation, they added. What then is behind the disput which has grounded Qantas’s fleet of 28 aircraft, including 19 Boeing 707 jets, which temporarily stranded 1400 passengers around the world and which has threatened the jobs of hundreds of other innocent Qantas employees? The Australian Federation of Air Pilots says the issue is safety. The company and the Acting Minister for Labour and National Service, Mr McMahon, say it is an attempt by the pilots to arrogate the management rights of the company. Power Status Another authority, who is something of an amateur psychologist, believes part of the reason is the anxiety of pilots to give themselves a power status in the community. Because of their hours of work they are cut off from everyday contact with the world. They sit for long hours in the flight deck on long hauls with little to do. As well as money they want a finger in policy making. In seeking more money and power, the pilots have one of the strongest of weapons. Their numbers are in short supply in a rapidly expanding industry. One of the main reasons for the shortage of pilots is the Vietnam war. Before the war, the United States Air Force was a constant source of pilot supply for the commercial airlines. Now, pilots are remaining in the Services and many more young pilot recruits are going to the Air Force rather than the commercial field. The effect has been felt throughout the world as American airlines seek pilots from other countries.

Canadian Pacific Airlines, which has been losing pilots to the United States, advertised for Australian pilots last July at salaries for senior captains of up to Can. 30,000 dollars (about £10,700) a year. Pilots have used this situation to drive hard salary bargains. The Australian pilots have been among the toughest and hardest bargainers. To take greater advantage

of its position, the Australian Federation of Air Pilots in 1959 put itself outside the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. The pilots saw better prospects in direct negotiation with the companies. One important advantage they gained was the ability to bargain separately with the domestic and overseas airlines. Domestic Pilots The current militancy by the pilots had an earlier tryout in July, when the A.F.A.P., led by its ambitious, forceful president, Captain R. T. Holt, won increases of 27} per cent for domestic pilots. It also obtained a new pay system known as the North American formula under which, broadly, pilots may select blocks of forward flights and are paid according to their flying times. This success followed a strike threat under which, first the managing-director of Ansett-A.N.A. Mr R. M. Ansett, and then T.A.A., capitulated. It was a resounding victory for the federation and Captain Holt in particular. Airline officials said ruefully later that the pilots would have been prepared to settle for a 19 per cent increase.

A month before the domestic pilots’ big gains, Qantas had granted the overseas pilots an interim increase of 15 per cent following recommendations by an Inquiry into domestic salaries.

When negotiations began in October under a mediator appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Labour and National Service, Sir Henry Bland, for a final Qantas pilots’ salary decision, they were inhibited, not unnaturally, by the domestic settlement. The pilots broke off the negotiations and began preparations for the strike by conducting a ballot of A.F.A.P. earlier this month. Two-Pilot Crews The climax came last month when Qantas offered salary increases ranging up to 3792 dollars (about £1500) a year on condition that the federation accepted the company’s right to determine operational issues. It was this condition, which involved the use of two-pilot crews instead of three on New Zealand and Noumea flights and night landings at Djakarta airport, that A.F.A.P. grabbed at to reject the offer. The strike followed.

The Qantas condition was put forward in an attempt to rid management of the frequent disputes with pilots over operational matters. As one company official put it: “We made a big offer and we wanted something in return.” The fast expansion of Qantas, as with other international airlines, demands a quick facility to begin a new

service without long delays for argument with pilots. On the two points in issue Qantas says that the Department of Civil Aviation has approved night landings at Djakarta and that Dutch, Japanese and French airlines are operating night services from the airport. The third pilot in Qantas planes had its beginning because of the airline's long flights from Australia, particularly before the jet age. The third pilot is redundant on short hops to New Zealand and Noumea, says the company.

Why should pilots demand a voice in the operation of airlines? The pilots say safety. The captain bears the final responsibility for his plane, crew and passengers under Air Navigation Regulations. Pilot Error The International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Association in conference last March recommended a ban on night landings at Djakarta because of its lack of landing aid equipment. (The recommendation was moved by Australian delegates.) A.F.A.P. says that D.C.A. uses two standards by prohibiting B-727s from landing at Hobart and at 20 other Australian airports which do not have instrument landing systems or visual guide slopes, yet approves Djakarta landings for the bigger B-7075. The federation says 90 per cent of accidents are finally diagnosed as pilot error. Accidents invariably occurred in two-pilot crews and not threepilot, “fail safe,” crews. Insurance actuaries laid down 300,000 hours as the total jet flying hours before an airline company was due for a catastrophic accident, says the federation. Qantas had already passed this point. Qantas's good record was due to three-pilot crews, a good training organisation and good engineering maintenance. The federation accuses the company of seeking to lower safety standards to overcome shortage of pilots.

Pilots profess anger and hurt at suggestions that they are using the more sympathetic issue of safety to force up their already high salaries. Yet the dangers of the two points on which they are fighting must seem overemphasised. They admit that other airports (Cairo and Manila included) are not up to standard. Two-pilot jet crews are commonplace. The Qantas pilots, as Mr McMahon indicated last Monday night, have tackled a bristling opponent. Their success in the domestic field was made primarily against the vulnerable private operator. This time, with their challenge against Qantas, the Commonwealth Government is footing the bill.