‘Too little, too late’: Qantas begs pilots to stay with retention payments worth A$18,000 a year

Qantas’ aggressive Alan Joyce-era industrial relations strategy, which has so far been continued by his successor CEO Vanessa Hudson, is beginning to fall apart. Attempting to stem the flow of resignations from its subsidiary companies, Qantas is offering tens of thousands of dollars in one-off payments to pilots, who are being lured by better salary conditions at competitors, including cashed-up international airlines, a new airline started by a major mining company, and Virgin Australia. The pilot retention scheme has been launched while the Fair Work Commission continues to adjudicate the enterprise bargaining agreement at Network Aviation, where Qantas rejected union demands for a new agreement earlier this year. As Qantas management said in an internal note to pilots, obtained by Crikey: The Network Aviation pilot retention incentive scheme is a retention scheme where eligible employees will receive discretionary quarterly retention payments of $4,500 (the equivalent of $18,000 pa [gross]) for line pilots until a workplace determination is made by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The payment will be backdated to March 16, 2024, and will be made every three months thereafter (quarterly). But National Aviation pilots say it’s “too little, too late”.<br/>