QANTAS and other airlines should face fines if they ground their aircraft fleets on the basis of spurious safety concerns, according to the majority view of a senate committee.
However, the committee has rejected bills proposed by the independent senator Nick Xenophon aimed at forcing Qantas and Jetstar to conduct more work such as aircraft engineering in Australia, and pay overseas cabin crew local wages when they fly on domestic legs of international flights.
In a report tabled yesterday, the committee recommended the federal government consider imposing penalties on airlines that ground their fleets if they cite ''safety concerns'' without a valid reason.
Senators questioned Qantas's chief executive, Alan Joyce, at a hearing shortly after his controversial decision in late October to lock out staff and ground the airline's entire fleet. It forced the federal government to intervene and led to the industrial umpire terminating Qantas's dispute with three unions.
Qantas told the senators the decision to ground its fleet was a response to safety concerns identified as part of a risk assessment in planning for the lock-out. The long-haul pilots union disputed Qantas's assessment of the risk to safety.
The senate committee wants airlines to be made to lodge a safety case with the air-safety regulator before they make a formal decision to ground planes because of the ''potential for widespread repercussions'' for Australia's economy and reputation abroad.
However, Coalition senators on the committee disagreed, saying such a demand on an airline would remove its ''right to run itself''.
Qantas welcomed the committee's rejection of Senator Xenophon's attempts to tighten the laws governing it but has taken exception to its demands for tougher rules over the grounding of aircraft.
''To be required to undergo a time-consuming process of justification and approval prior to taking safety action is unacceptable to Qantas and contrary to basic safety management principles,'' Qantas's head of government relations, Olivia Wirth, said yesterday. ''This is impractical when speed of response is essential to safe operations.''
Qantas and the Transport Workers Union, which represents baggage handlers, also began binding arbitration over a new enterprise agreement before the workplace umpire yesterday. The hearing in front of a full bench of Fair Work is expected to take several weeks.
Qantas settled its long-running dispute with aircraft engineers in December but has been unable to reach an agreement with baggage handlers and long-haul pilots.