QANTAS CEO Geoff Dixon recently confirmed union claims that it had employed more than 300 staff on short-term contracts to act as strike breakers in the event of industrial action by the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA)
QANTAS CEO Geoff Dixon recently confirmed union claims that it had employed more than 300 staff on short-term contracts to act as strike breakers in the event of industrial action by the Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA).
Following Qantas’ decision to relocate its international cabin crews to London, which is estimated to save the airline $18 million, the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the FAAA have threatened industrial action.
Speaking at Qantas’ annual general meeting, Dixon downplayed the threats and lambasted the unions for trying to interfere in the national carrier’s business. “One of the more reprehensible – and I mean that word – things that the unions undertake, particularly the flight attendants, is to say they are going to strike”.
“We will fly and we will also make any contingency plans to offset any (industrial action). We have a right to try and run our airline.
“And indeed if you say that’s breaking strikes we have every right to do that – that’s what we are supposed to do.”
Dixon said Qantas was operating in a increasingly competitive market where other international airlines were becoming more efficient, often with the assistance of governments.
“Productivity is the issue, and the thing we are going to face in the next few years are other airlines getting that productivity,” he said.
However the FAAA criticised Qantas for employing staff on three-month contracts to act as strike-breakers if necessary.
“We see that as merely a cynical exercise to use those people as strike-breakers if it comes down to an industrial showdown in December,” said FAAA divisional secretary of the international division, Michael Mijatov.
With the current EBA set to expire on December 17 and negotiations for the new EBA commencing in November, Mijatov said a majority of staff were prepared to strike if negotiations failed.
The FAAA recently surveyed its 4,000 members and 87 per cent of members did not trust their management.
Qantas also came under fire from the ASU after the airline’s offer of a 3 per cent pay rise per annum to staff members (the ASU is seeking a 6 per cent rise and job security commitments), while Qantas shareholders recently voted to increase the directors’fees pool by 6 per cent and executive salaries and bonuses have also increased substantially.
