News Backgrounder
Unions say no to Qantas job cuts
April 1st 2014
Qantas Airways CEO, Alan Joyce, is dealing with intensifying union opposition to his goal of eliminating 5,000 jobs from the group as part of a A$2 billion re-structuring of the struggling Australian airline group. Read More »
The massive jobs cull, announced after the airline lost $252 million for the six months to December 31, will be implemented alongside a cost cutting plan that will include fleet reduction and a continuing management pay freeze.
Representatives of 14 unions told a national government Senate hearing last month they also opposed Joyce’s campaign to revise the Qantas Sale Act. The legislation, which applies solely to Qantas, limits foreign investment in the carrier to 49%. The unions told the Senate hearing that if the limits to foreign ownership of the Flying Kangaroo were removed it would result in the break up of the carrier and the loss of even more jobs.
Representatives of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association (ALAMEA) released a dossier that alleged a lengthy list of errors on Qantas aircraft following maintenance in Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.
Joyce dismissed the ALAMEA claims as “blatant fear mongering” and said the union was “playing the safety card as a tool of industrial relations”. He said “as always in aviation, there are multiple fail-safes to account for error. Suggesting any mistake is a potential catastrophe is alarmist and deeply irresponsible”, Joyce said.
The Qantas CEO has faced two separate Senate committee inquiries, one on the proposed changes to the Sale Act and another on the future of Qantas, since he announced his survival strategy for the airline group in February.
He continues to place same of the blame for Qantas’s situation on the majority foreign ownership of Virgin Australia by Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand. His rival is not bound by a foreign ownership cap, Joyce said, and this creates an uneven playing field in Australian aviation.
Under pressure from unions to explain how he reached the figure of 5,000 job losses, Joyce told the Senate hearing they represented 25% of the total $2 billion cost reduction program. He said he had outlined to unions the details of 2,500 jobs losses to the unions, including some 1500 staff, working mostly in back office roles, and 300 workers from the aircraft maintenance division. The remaining reductions would be the result of “fuel, fleet simplification and efficiencies”, he said.
