Extend JobKeeper past September for aviation, says TWU

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said, “Aviation workers are crying out for certainty and are appealing to the federal government to urgently put in place ‘aviation keeper’ beyond September.

“Through no fault of their own these workers have seen their jobs ground to a halt and the airports just about shut up. They deserve to know that the government intends to keep their vital industry afloat so they can continue paying their bills and supporting their families.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously promised the scheme will be reviewed at the end of June, and also hinted it could be extended to more vulnerable industries.

“The review will provide an opportunity to see how the program is going and the experience on the ground and to make any amendments that are necessary,” he said. “When you move a program as quickly as this, then you anticipate that there will be some anomalies and issues that need to be addressed along the way.”

Last week, Australian Aviation reported how the Australian Federation of Air Pilots also lobbied the government to extend its JobKeeper scheme for the aviation industry when it expires on 27 September.

President Louise Pole said, “The likelihood that international operations will resume in any meaningful way before September is remote and our highly-skilled airline pilot members are currently in a severe financial situation.”

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The JobKeeper package was introduced to provide coronavirus-effected business with $1,500 per employee, per fortnight.

The companies are then legally obliged to pass that payment onto workers in a bid to keep the economy active during the pandemic.

More generally, the scheme has proved problematic for much of the aviation industry.

Many airport workers are locked out of the financial package because their firms are council-owned; while staff at dnata were similarly told they were no longer eligible because their company is owned by a foreign government.

Later, it emerged a miscalculation meant the package came around $60 billion under budget.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Today program he accepted blame for the apparent reporting error, which meant the aid package only cost $70 billion and covered 3.5 million Australians, rather than $130 billion and 6.5 million as forecast.

In May, the chairman of Mildura Airport became Australia’s first airport boss to call for the scheme to be extended after it emerged the initiative was under budget.

Peter O’Donnell told Australian Aviation, “We’ll get through this, but my concern is that the regional networks will be decimated because airports will be fundamentally without funds or bankrupted.”