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[The Qantas industrial dispute made headlines around the world, after the airline took the drastic step in October 2011 of grounding its fleet ahead of a proposed lockout of a large proportion of its workforce. Essentially a contest between job security and employment flexibility, the dispute was one of the most significant in Australia for some time. This article examines the origins and circumstances of the Qantas dispute and the issues it highlighted as to the operation of key aspects of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). We conclude that, particularly in light of the federal industrial tribunal's endorsement of the airline's strategy and support for the concept of 'managerial prerogative', the dispute may have long-term implications for workplace regulation in Australia.]
I INTRODUCTION
This article examines the industrial dispute between Australia's 'flagship' airline, Qantas Ltd ('Qantas'), and three trade unions - the Transport Workers' Union ('TWU'), the Australian and International Pilots Association ('AIPA') and the Australian Licenced AircraftEngineers Association ('ALAEA') - which occurred from mid-2010, throughout 2011 and into 2012.1 The dispute arose out of negotiations between Qantas and the three unions, under pt 2-4 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ('FW Act'), for new enterprise agreements to regulate the terms and conditions of employment of relevant Qantas employees. Following many months of 'protected' (lawful) industrial action by members of the three unions, Qantas took the controversial and dramatic step of grounding its worldwide fleet on 29 October 2011.2 This was accompanied by the company giving notice that it would lock out employees covered by the three unions, with effect from 31 October. The federal government then applied to Fair Work Australia ('FWA') to have all protected industrial action by parties to the Qantas dispute terminated. This application was granted by a Full Bench of FWA,3 providing the basis for the tribunal to make a workplace determination resolving the matters in dispute between Qantas and each of the unions (after a statutory negotiation period had been exhausted).
The title of this article owes something to the heated nature of the Qantas dispute, which was ratcheted up by Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, in a speech in April 2011.4 Joyce attacked the three unions for running a 'kamikaze campaign' based on 'completely unacceptable'...