Qantas chairman Goyder will have ‘nowhere to hide’ at inquiry
Ayesha de KretserSenior reporterSep 17, 2023 – 7.42pm
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ShareThe Transport Workers Union says Qantas chairman Richard Goyder will have “nowhere to hide” at the upcoming Senate Inquiry into the national carrier, claiming the Qantas board has been in denial about the airline’s decision to sack workers being both illegal and damaging to safety, brand and customers.
The chairmen and chief executives of major airlines –
including former Qantas boss Alan Joyce – have been called before the inquiry from September 26, but the committee is still negotiating the exact timing and format of their appearances.
Alan Joyce, Vanessa Hudson and Richard Goyder are all being called before the Senate. Rhett Wyman Qantas chief legal counsel Andrew Finch told the TWU that the board was satisfied the airline’s management, led at the time by Mr Joyce, had appropriately managed the risks when it outsourced nearly 1700 workers after the airline was grounded in 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic.
The union says the board subsequently ignored three further attempts from the TWU to discuss its growing concerns about a sharp deterioration in safety standards – which it linked to the decline in Qantas’ public reputation.
“The board is in denial. It’s been in denial for years. We put them on notice right at the start of all this, we warned them abut the consequences of all this for workers and for the travelling public. We’ve got Goyder coming to the Senate Inquiry and the questions will be put to him,” TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said on Sunday.
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View QAN related articles “For the first time, there will be nowhere to hide.”
Following the High Court decision last Wednesday which
found Qantas’ sacking of 1683 ground staff was illegal, Mr Kaine said he was still waiting for chief executive Vanessa Hudson to contact the TWU to discuss compensation for workers, as Qantas indicated it would do last week.
But Mr Kaine said the union is signing up more members across the three main labour hire firms to which ground staff jobs had been outsourced, Menzies, dnata and Swissport, suggesting Qantas would still need to engage with the TWU.
“I don’t think Qantas has an option but to change the way it looks at its customers, to change the way it looks at its workforce and to start treating its workforce as an investment not a cost,” he said.
As recently as February, the TWU wrote to Mr Goyder outlining serious safety concerns.
These included firearms being unloaded onto luggage carousels, dangerous goods loaded onto planes without documentation, cargo doors being left open, stairs being removed with passenger doors open, plane loads being unbalanced, staff working injured and vehicles colliding with refuelling hoses.
Correspondence between Qantas’ chief legal counsel Mr Finch and the TWU from October 2020 reveals the airline’s board was satisfied by the overall governance settings.
“Boards are responsible for ensuring appropriate governance for a company overall. In that respect, the Qantas board is satisfied that the group has robust systems and processes in place to identify, assess and appropriately manage potential risks, including the risks you have identified in your correspondence,” Mr Finch wrote. He declined requests for meetings on behalf of the board.
Mr Kaine said Qantas’ brand and reputation issues stemmed from the outsourcing decision, which caused widespread chaos at airports during the exit of the pandemic.
Qantas says the issues were not related to outsourcing and blamed the omicron COVID-19 wave for worker sickness that caused a raft of baggage handling issues and delays at airports.
Ms Hudson
vowed to restore customer focus and will meet union groups on Monday to hear their concerns, but has not yet contacted the TWU after last week’s historic High Court defeat for the airline.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee will commence the process of determining compensation for the 1683 sacked workers, as well as the size of the fine to be issued to Qantas on Wednesday.
The airline has already banked savings of $102 million a year annually since sacking the workers at the start of 2021, as well as $80 million of capital expenditure over five years. The maximum fine is $100 million, while worker compensation is not expected to exceed $100 million