Qantas has reached an ‘in principle’ agreement with the Australian Services Union for a new three-year enterprise agreement covering about one quarter of the airline’s Australian employees. The Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon, said the ‘in principle’ agreement provided for an annual wage increase of three per cent. Mr Dixon said negotiations with the ASU, and other unions, had also involved discussions on a range of other employee benefit issues. “As a result of these discussions Qantas had decided to increase company superannuation contributions for all employees in accumulation funds to no less than 10 per cent. Employees in defined benefit schemes will also be able to salary sacrifice their employee contributions,” he said. Mr Dixon said the changes to superannuation would be progressively introduced across Qantas as each new EBA was settled with various employee groups. He said the company had also decided to increase paid maternity leave from 10 to 12 weeks. “A recent bonus of $1,000 and distribution of $1,000 in shares and the improvement to superannuation and parental leave provisions would ensure that all Qantas employees benefit from a strongly performing Qantas,” he said. The new ASU EBA will be voted on by employees and is expected to come into effect before the end of January 2008.
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