Qantas. Un lock out emblématique des faiblesses de la nouvelle législation du travail

This article discusses the grounding of the Qantas fleet, October 2011. The subsequent lockout of most of the staffs prompted the Australian government, through Fair Work Australia, to intervene to mediate the conflict between the direction of Qantas and three of its trade unions: the Australian & International Pilot Association (AIPA), the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU). Section 424 of the Fair Work Act (FWA) thus stipulates that Fair Work Australia may force an industrial dispute into compulsory arbitration if the dispute causes 'significant damage' to the community or the economy, which was seen as being the case for Qantas. Qantas decision was radical and largely unexpected but efficient in a way that it put an immediate end to (otherwise protected) industrial actions and further restrained the unions within the arbitration process. This inspired other Australian employers as in the case of the Victorian government against the nurses' union and led to question the provisions surrounding 'good faith bargaining' under the FWA, which were further discussed in the Review of the FWA in 2012.\u