Dear Member,

The ALAEA understands that the current employee collective agreement covering the Heavy Maintenance operations at Cobham in Adelaide (Scheduled Maintenance Employee Collective Agreement) will nominally expire this year and thus provide the opportunity for a further round of bargaining to establish a new enterprise agreement for aircraft engineers at the HM facility.

As you may know, the ALAEA is involved in negotiations for enterprise agreements with many aviation companies in Australia. This includes Cobham where in recent times an interim collective enterprise agreement was established for Line Engineering employees (Cobham Engineering Line Maintenance Enterprise Agreement 2011) and an enterprise agreement for Cobham Special Mission employees at Cairns and Darwin ( Cobham Engineering HMU Enterprise Agreement 2011).

The current Line Maintenance EA expires on 30 June this year so bargaining negotiations are due to commence with a meeting in Adelaide scheduled for Thursday 15 March. The ALAEA will be a bargaining representative for this EA.

If members in Adelaide covered by the Heavy Maintenance agreement want the ALAEA to be involved in upcoming discussions to renew your current Agreement, please find attached a Bargaining Representation form where you can nominate the ALAEA to be a bargaining representative.

The form should be completed and signed and posted back to the ALAEA address at 25 Stoney Creek Road Bexley  NSW  2207.

It is likely the Company will also shortly release a notice in relation to representational rights for bargaining as required under the Fair Work Act legislation.

As I will be in Adelaide meeting with Cobham senior management about the Line Maintenance EA on Thursday 15 March, it may be possible to schedule an initial discussion on the Heavy Maintenance EA for the same day – perhaps from mid afternoon when the LM EA discussions have concluded.

However before there is any further follow up with the Company, we would need an indication if members from Heavy Maintenance are seeking the involvement of the ALAEA.

We look forward to your response and feedback regarding this matter.

Best regards,

Noel Speers
National Industrial Officer
Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association

Attachments:

File
Bargaining Form