Jetstar sacks pilot who raised safety concerns
By Timothy McDonald
Former Jetstar pilot Joe Eakins says the airline sacked him because he criticised his employer in an article published in the Fairfax Press.
So where is the industry as a whole going? Well, according to Sunfish:
The answer is backwards, certainly in Australia and probably internationally if recent revelations about the Indian subcontinent, the behaviour of the likes of Ryanair are anything to go by. Read the Colgan Buffalo crash cockpit transcript and weep. Two poor schmucks trying to make a dollar, and flying wasn't even their first career choice! Look at the current situation of Sunstate engineers - being docked four hours pay for being a little slow changing a tire! Look at the procession of cases sent to the AAT regarding CASA! Look at the air traffic control incident involving Emirates and Qantas and the perennial discussions about the difficulty of recruiting and training ATC staff! Look at criticism of Jetstars pilot cadet scheme.
Ah! You say, "but none of these incidents are related!" Of course they effing well are! They are all related to the practice of current management in many organisations of trying to get blood out of a stone and ignoring effects on corporate culture, let alone the feelings of the individual employees concerned, let alone the long term negative effects of their bastardry on the organisation. Airlines are fertile grounds for bastardry because they consist of the differing tribes of pilots engineers, cabin crew as well as office staff. There are almost infinite gradations in the various pecking orders caused by seniority, aircraft type, qualifications and suchlike, all held together by Twenty Four hour duty rosters that can be played like a violin by management intent on gratifying itself by causing misery. This is trust reducing behaviour and it is going to bite you.
Continue you current management behaviour Qantas, and you will go the way of Ansett. The RR/A380 thing was a bit of a surprise wasn't it? Let the regulator and ATC continue on their merry way as well and wait for the eventual Coroners Inquiry and Royal Commission, it's coming.