PILOTS AT WORK; PAY DECISION AWAITED

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28258, 22 April 1957, Page 11

PILOTS AT WORK; PAY DECISION AWAITED

(Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 21.' Qantas Empire Airways’ pilots ended their nine-day strike late yesterday afternoon and resumed duty at midnight last night on existing conditions. The strike was settled at a conference yesterday between the company, representatives of the Pilots’ Association, and the Commonwealth Conciliation Commissioner, Mr John Portus. A statement issued after the conference said that all dismissed pilots, flight engineers, and navigators would be fully reinstated by Qantas from midnight with all former rights, privileges and seniority. Mr Portus had flown from Adelaide to Sydney to hold the conference, which lasted three hours. The strike is estimated to have cost Qantas £500,000. The conference statement said that the question of pilots’ salaries would be referred to Mr Portus immediately for a decision. The company’s operations staff were working late last night and today to get in motion the many aircraft grounded at airports throughout the world by the pilots’ strike. A Qantas spokesman said that the first Qantas service to leave Sydney after the settlement would be a Super-Constellation for Lfen-

don tomorrow afternoon. This would be followed tomorrow night by an airliner for New Guinea carrying a big backlog of mail. The spokesman said that the airline was attempting to get into high gear again as soon as possible, but this was not easy. “We have lost a lot of ground to our competitors,” he said. The airline’s network extends to Britain, Europe, the United States, South Africa, Asia, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands. Qantas and the Australian Air Pilots’ Association have agreed not to begin or continue any other legal proceedings connected with the strike. Both parties agreed that any dispute arising out of the terms of settlement made at yesterday’s conference will be submitted to Mr Portus for determination. They also agreed that there would be no victimisation by the company or the association. The Qantas chairman, Sir Hudson Fysh, said: “We are extremely pleased that our pilots have agreed to return their claims to arbitration and that they are returning to work on pre-strike conditions. “They are a fine team and I would stress that the only issue between us has been their refusal to have their claims resolved by arbitration.’’