Industrial Dispute Report
Added on 2020-04-07
13 Pages3595 Words63 Views
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE2ContentsIntroduction......................................................................................................................................3Factual Background.........................................................................................................................3Key Issues........................................................................................................................................4Fair Work Act..................................................................................................................................6Dispute Resolved?...........................................................................................................................9Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10References......................................................................................................................................11
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE3Introduction An industrial dispute, as the name suggests is a dispute which takes place between the peoplewho form that industry, and includes the disputes which take place between an employer and anemployee, or their groups. Qantas is a leading airline company and employees a hundreds ofemployees. Such a high number of staff increases the chances of an industrial dispute beingraised. Qantas had to bear bargaining dispute with ALAEA (Australian Licenced AircraftEngineers Association), TWU (Transport Workers Union) and AIPA (Australian andInternational Pilots Association). The industrial dispute related to the company grabbed theattention of the people from across the globe as the airline decided to ground its fleet before theproposed lockout of a huge portion of its workforce (Creedy, 2011a). This led to a contest beingmade between the job security and the employment flexibility. The Qantas dispute highlighteddifferent aspects of the Fair Work Act, 2009 (Cth) come to play. The support of ‘managerialprerogative’ and the endorsement of the tribunal to the strategy of the airline continues to haveimplications over the workplace regulations in the nation and would continue to do so over along period of time. In the following parts, this dispute and its end has been discussed. Factual BackgroundThe Qantas industrial dispute took place between the airline and three of its unions, i.e., ALAEA,TWU and AIPA. Negotiations for an enterprise agreement were started between August 2010and May 2011 by Qantas with its three unions (Motro, 2012). In the middle of 2011, themembers of AIPA initiated industrial actions against the airline and this included makingannouncements to the passengers when the long haul flight concluded and wearing of different
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE4coloured ties. The ALAEA and TWU members also took a damaging industrial action againstthe airline and this included stopping the work (Motro, 2012). On October 29th, 2011 Saturday, a notice was given by Qantas to AIPA regarding it will belooking out for such employees who would come under the ambit of the agreements which werebeing negotiated with the airline and the three unions, and this was scheduled to be effectivefrom October 31st, 2011. The Commonwealth Minister, before the industrial action couldactually take place, made an application under the Fair Work Act to the Fair Work Australiaregarding an order for terminating or suspending the protected industrial action which was beingundertaken between the airline and the three trade unions based on the action which threatened toresult in a major damage to the economy of the nation, or to a major part of it (Motro, 2012). It was held by the Fair Work Australia that this protection industrial action being undertakenbetween the three unions, when considered together, was not very likely to be a threat to theeconomy of the nation in a significant manner. Though, it was concluded by the Fair WorkAustralia that in case Qantas decided to respond industrial action, it would definitely be a majorthreat to the air transport industry and to the tourism industry of the nation and thus, to theindustry in Australia, in general (Coorey and O'Sullivan, 2011). And so, the Fair Work Australiaexercised its discretion and terminated the industrial action which was taking place between thethree unions and Qantas (Motro, 2012). Key IssuesThe first key issue in this case was regarding the legality of the job security claims of the unions.This claim leads to a debate over the limits with regards to contracting out. Qantas was trying to
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