Independent South Australia Senator Nick Xenophon has ridiculed the new Jetstar contract for pilots as ‘treating them like Lindsay Lohan under home detention’ because it prohibits them from going out without company approval on their days off.
Pilots are seething with anger over the new contract which they say treats them like ‘serfs’.
At least one Jetstar pilot has written to the board members of Qantas which owns Jetstar demanding they recognise and review the serious iniquities in the contract, which takes labor relations in Australia back to colonial master and servant arrangements, or those imposed on indigenous Australians and Torres Strait islanders in Queensland in more recent times.
This is Senator Xenophon’s statement:
Jetstar has been contacted for a response.
Update The Australian Federation of Air Pilots has filed proceedings against Jetstar in the Federal Court with a view to stopping the company issuing the contracts and seeking various penalties and reliefs under the Fair Work Act for actions the union believes contravene the Air Pilots Award.
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