Awards cancelled

Press, 22 August 1989, Page 10

Awards cancelled

NZPA-AAP Melbourne Australia’s Industrial Relations Commission yesterday signed an order cancelling 17 industrial awards and agreements covering domestic airline pilots after the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) failed to end its industrial action. Earlier the Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, had warned striking domestic pilots the Government would close down the air transport system if they went outside wage guidelines. Mr Hawke said the pilots would not win the dispute over their claim for 30 per cent wage rises. The pilots had had until

4 p.m. yesterday to respond to an Industrial Relations Commission deadline demanding they work within the national wage guidelines or the 17 awards covering 1600 pilots would be cancelled. Mr Hawke said the pilots were being "excessively greedy.” The Government could not afford to lose the dispute because a win for the pilots would wreck the wages system. “If the airline system has to be shut down, it will be shut down,” he said. Mr Hawke said the Government had made contingency plans involving the R.A.A.F. if the pilots did not agree to the commission’s demand.