The Albanese Government welcomes today's news that over 3,000 Qantas cabin crew will receive improved pay and conditions, through agreements reached between the Flight Attendants Association of Australia and the airline.
These pay rises are a direct result of Labor's new workplace laws, which closed the loophole that allowed labour hire workers to be paid significantly less than direct employees of a business, despite doing the same work on the same rosters.
We congratulate Qantas and the FAAA for reaching agreement to ensure cabin crew members are paid fairly, regardless of their employment status.
The Albanese Government was elected on a platform of getting wages moving again and today's news is another step towards that.
Recent figures show our policies have delivered three consecutive quarters of annual real wage growth.
Delivering better pay is a key part of helping Australians deal with cost of living pressures.
We expect these new agreements to benefit thousands of Qantas staff, both short and long haul, with better pay, conditions and more job security. Along with other workplace initiatives announced through the Aviation White Paper, this will make the aviation sector more attractive to the next generation of Australian workers.
This is an example of the positive outcomes that can be achieved when employers and unions come to the table, using Labor's new workplace laws.
In contrast, Peter Dutton has promised to repeal a number of Labor's workplace laws if he is elected, cutting pay at a time Australians are facing real cost of living pressures.
Since the Closing Loopholes Bill was passed in December last year, we have seen "same job, same pay" agreements reached between unions and employers in mining and now in aviation.
