ERA finds Jetstar breached collective agreement, Holidays Act
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered Jetstar Airways to provide pilot Matthew Veale with an alternative holiday for working on Waitangi Day.
The decision stems from a dispute regarding the interpretation of the airline's collective agreement concerning pilot entitlements when working on public holidays.
The conflict began on February 5, 2023, when Veale was on scheduled annual leave, with the following day, February 6, designated as a rostered day off (RDO).
Jetstar asked Veale to work flying across February 5 and into February 6, which coincided with Waitangi Day, a public holiday in New Zealand.
Although not obliged to accept the request, Veale agreed and worked on both days and then sought an alternative holiday, as stipulated by the Holidays Act 2003 and his collective agreement with Jetstar.
However, the airline denied his request, claiming he was not officially rostered to work on that day since he had been on an RDO at the time he accepted the work.
Veale and the New Zealand Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA) contested Jetstar's interpretation, arguing that accepting the work request meant he was effectively rostered for duty and thus entitled to an alternative holiday as per the agreement.
ERA member Antoinette Baker sided with Veale and the union, concluding that once the pilot agreed to work on Waitangi Day, he became "rostered to work" that day, making him eligible for the alternative holiday.
"I find the applicants' position strongly persuasive that the plain and ordinary meaning of the words 'rostered to work' meant that once Mr Veale accepted the offer to work on Waitangi Day 2023, he then by logic had been rostered to work," Baker said in the decision.
The ERA member also ruled that Jetstar Airways Limited breached its collective agreement with NZALPA, as well as the Holidays Act 2003, when it did not provide Veale an "alternative holiday" for working on February 6.
"Jetstar Airways is to provide Mr Veale with an 'alternative holiday' for working on Waitangi Day 2023 with the quantum of payment and when the day is taken and paid for left to the parties to conclude," Baker said.
