There will be another 50 going from short haul to long haul on 27th Jan that is 100 in the past 3 months or so, add to that the people that took the package during the down turn and the people on leave without pay etc and you can see why MAM are putting through schools of casuals.
They say long haul is short of crew so I suppose that is why more off shore crew are being recruited. I can see a pattern here and it all goes back to Geoff Dixons statement on "The Future of Work" which he put out mid year that stated that he wanted the QF workforce to have a bigger proportion of casual and contract labour and what better way to do it than through external companies which will have contracts in place that "they cant break" so if and when there is another down turn again guess who are the first to go QF Staff.
The Adecco crew did not loose their jobs during the down turn and QF did not offer to cancel the contracts to save Aussie jobs instead they offered Voluntary Redundancy so now when they need crew they just go through contract companies to get them.
Lets hope 2004/05 financial year will see a change in policy.