FAAA cabin crew members at Virgin Australia have overwhelmingly voted to take strike action in the lead up to Christmas.
Over 98% of Virgin Cabin crew who are FAAA members have voted for a series of 24 hour stoppages said Teri O’Toole Federal secretary of the FAAA.
She went on to say “this is unprecedented and demonstrates that Virgin Cabin crew have had enough of looking after the passengers like they are family and being treated like slaves by their current management”.
“Virgins latest pay offer will not lift Cabin crew wages above poverty rates” says Teri O’Toole – Federal Secretary of the FAAA, responding to Virgin’s latest offer.
“In the last 5 years, cabin crew have received 1.98% pay increase in total. With inflation and a sharp rise in the cost of living they struggle to pay for rent, food, fuel and household bills and school fees”
When Virgin went into voluntary administration, FAAA members helped get Virgin back on their feet. Cabin crew had pay freezes and lost conditions of employment which in turn has lead to unsafe conditions at work. Virgin regards this as a productivity saving for the company.
As loyal employees for many years they were prepared to sacrifice and rebuild the company and the brand of Virgin in good faith. They were promised during the administration by the new owners of Virgin that when things got better they would be better paid with improved conditions and a reasonable work life balance.
“Virgin needs to show they value and fairly remunerate their staff and are willing to address the systemic issues that cause, burnout and exhaustion at work”. Fatigue and illness is a real problem at Virgin according to cabin crew, where unsafe conditions puts staff at risk. “There has been a rise in near miss events due to fatigue, where an accident could cause serious injury”.
Cabin crew are responsible for passenger welfare and safety in the air and on the ground and often deal with emergencies and difficult and complex problems. Virgin must provide better rostering practices, reducing long shifts and hours and ensure staff have proper breaks and rest time to reduce fatigue at work.
“After many months of bargaining for a new enterprise agreement – taking industrial action is always a last resort but our members feel strongly that these issues need to be addressed by the company ”.
For comment please contact Teri O’Toole – Federal Secretary of the FAAA on 0414 577 437