QANTAS WORKERS ACTION SYDNEY CBD

Qantas workers will today hand a letter into Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s residence in Sydney CBD and leaflet the public on plans to axe and outsource their jobs.

The action follows a legal case which began in the Fair Work Commission yesterday to halt the outsourcing, which aims to bring in workers on lower pay and conditions.

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said workers wanted to appeal to the Qantas CEO over his move against their 2,500 jobs.

“Workers are frustrated and want to appeal to Alan Joyce not to outsource them. They want to tell him they stood by the company when the airline was in trouble in 2014, taking a hit with an 18-month wage freeze which continues to impact their pay and super. They want him to know that they are utterly devastated that he wants to replace them at a time of crisis and high unemployment,” Kaine said.

“Some of these workers have loyally worked at Qantas for over 30 years; some have mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, uncles who have also worked at Qantas; some are worried they may never work again given the crisis. To be cast aside and discarded by a spiteful management is wrong and not the Spirit of Australia,” he added.

Swissport, which the Fair Work Commission has confirmed pay their workers below award minimums and which has been exposed over low paid workers forced to sleep at the airports, has already begun advertising for the Qantas work.

Qantas has received $800 million support through public subsidies since the pandemic hit. This week media published documents showing Qantas management planned the outsourcing 10 years ago.

The legal action at the Fair Work Commission centres on Qantas management’s failure to consult with workers on its plan to kill their jobs and over the tendering process which has been designed to make it impossible for workers to bid for their jobs.

In documents to workers, Qantas has given workers until October 9 to make a final bid and to find $100 million labour cost savings and $80 million to fund equipment upgrades, despite the airline choosing not to do these upgrades when it made billions of dollars in profit, including $1.5 billion in profit in 2016, $1.4 billion in profit in 2017, $1.6 billion in profit in 2018 and $1.3 billion in profit in 2019.

When Qantas announced its CEO received $24 million pay package he was the highest paid CEO in Australia and the highest paid airline executive in the world.