Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) reported (28-Aug-2017) the full bench of the Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) handed down another important decision in favour of the union against Regional Express (Rex). AFAP stated the decision "reinforces our view that daily travel allowance (DTA) is paid from sign on at home base until sign off at home base, even when a pilot is doing a temporary transfer".
- According to the union, Rex decided in late 2016 to send pilots on temporary transfers of up to 27 days. AFAP and Rex could not agree on satisfactory terms for the transfers, so the union commenced a dispute in the FWC, centred on whether pilots are entitled to DTA for the entire period spent away from home base on a temporary transfer;
- The initial Feb-2017 FWC hearing did not accept the main arguments put forward by Rex, but found against the AFAP on other grounds;
- The Rex council and AFAP industrial staff reviewed the initial decision before coming to the view that it "contained errors that were sufficiently serious to justify an appeal to a Full Bench of the Commission";
- The Full Bench upheld the appeal, and determined that DTA is payable for the entire period of a temporary transfer. [more - original PR]