Re: Rorting allegations
A330 driver, great explanation and typical of the excellent no nonsense answers for which you have already become known. Many thanks.
The article does however refer to '200 kilometres out of Sydney' as the defining "I am entitled, but you are not' Goyder line. Yet you say the training is in Melbourne. Is the media article (albeit in Australia's most erudite newspaper, one that rarely exaggerates) incorrect?
If the situation is as you say it is, it may well be that these employees have 'abused' the allowance as if they are at home, there's a strong argument that they shouldn't claim an away from home allowance. QF also throws in free (business class) travel from the MEL training site to SYD or elsewhere one would presume.
However I haven't (and cannot) jump to conclusions because only QF management and perhaps its staff are in full possession of the facts. One wonders (as did AFFer under the radar) who got this into the media: management? Is this alleged bad behaviour or fraud being used as an industrial relations management tool?
Thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know that what I have to say is appreciated and seen as useful.
I have read a couple of articles which I wasn't able to access previously, and I must say I'm a bit unsure as to what exactly might have happened. I'm not sure whether these pilots were doing 737 training in Sydney (as far as I'm aware they only do 1 and 2 day Emergency Procedure training courses in Sydney for the 737 as there is no Qantas 737 sim in Sydney). My best guess is what I've written previously on this thread, but that's only because I can't think of what else might have actually happened.
A couple of points to consider. It is a requirement of our EBA/Award/Contract that we supply our contact info, and this includes your residential address. Whether you live outside of your base (ex: live in Brisbane but are based in Sydney), you must always supply your actual residential address, so in this example it would be Brisbane despite being based in Sydney. With this in mind, if Qantas paid an allowance when it wasn't entitled they did so with full knowledge that the pilot(s) in question weren't eligible as they know exactly whether you're inside or outside the 200km radius. The figure of circa $18,000 that keeps being floated around would be inclusive of everything, and I would be very surprised if the amount of allegedly unauthorised allowances came anywhere near that amount. With regards to my example in the previous post re: flying home to see your family, that is a cost borne by the individual and isn't covered by Qantas. The only time Qantas covers flights is if they are sending you somewhere to or from flying and/or training. Flying home to see your family isn't their concern, nor should it be I believe.
I had written a bit about the flight attendant comments but I have chosen to delete it. I fear it will be taken in a context in which it wasn't intended. Needless to say any "scam" or "fraud" stories that I've heard about by ANYONE have always come back to bite them, and the general qantas employee group think they're fools for doing it in the first place. In my experience I have always found my immediate management to be very fair, and I have never heard of anybody being fired for "minor infractions", there is always more to the story.
The final thing I will say is that this is just my opinion on the matter. I don't have any more knowledge on the topic than anyone else here, when I do I will share it. I am very curious as to who released this information given that this is an internal matter at this stage. I won't make excuses for this behaviour should it be true as it doesn't deserve a defence, but I have chosen to comment on this topic because it is so far out of character for one of my colleagues to act in this manner.