Pilot standby duty is work, High Court affirms

The High Court of Australia has upheld a ruling recognising standby duty as work in the aviation sector.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on HR Leader’s sister brand, Australian Aviation.

In a brief judgment, Australia’s highest court rejected an appeal by Corporate Air Charter of a ruling by the full Federal Court that standby duty counts as “work” and must therefore be included in calculations of pilots’ average weekly work hours.

The case, Corporate Air Charter Pty Ltd & Anor v Australian Federation of Air Pilots, concerned “the nature of work and the distinction between work and availability to work within the context of the use of standby in commercial piloting”, according to the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) union, which had fought the appeal.

“The applicants seek special leave to appeal from a judgment of the full court of the Federal Court of Australia (Logan, Dowling and McDonald JJ) dismissing an appeal from a decision of the South Australian Employment Court (deputy president Lieschke) which found that a member of the respondent was entitled to unpaid entitlements under the Air Pilots Award 2010 and the Air Pilots Award 2020,” the judges said in their ruling.

“An appeal would be an inappropriate vehicle to consider the questions sought to be raised concerning the nature of work and the distinction between work and availability to work.”

AFAP has hailed the decision as a “watershed moment for Australian aviation”, with no further avenues left for the company to appeal.

According to AFAP legal counsel Jared Marks, the ruling has “delivered a clear message that pilots’ professional expertise and time must receive proper recognition and compensation – setting a new standard for the industry”.

“These court decisions affirm a fundamental employment principle – that workers must be fairly compensated for all time spent in service to their employer. The courts have recognised that a pilot’s time has real value, whether in the flight deck, preparing for flight, or maintaining readiness for duty,” he said.

“These decisions uphold a fundamental workers’ right – that every employee deserves fair pay for all time spent serving their employer.

“We have consistently maintained that our members’ time and expertise hold genuine value, and the courts have now affirmed this basic principle of workplace fairness.

“These landmark cases have delivered a substantial uplift in pilot award conditions, establishing new benchmarks that will benefit pilots across the industry for years to come.”

Corporate Air Charter has been ordered to pay costs to AFAP.