Rumour has it that JHAS is in financial trouble and about to go under. It can't be substantiated, but when there is an exodus from JHAS to AMSA, there must be an element of truth in it. I'm not a fan of either organisation, but I would have though JHAS would have been the least bad to work for.
Romuous,
That's one of the benefits of outsourcing, you get a price and you get reduced cost risk, the contractor wears most of the risk.
The contractor wears the cost risk, and the airline/company outsourcing wears the "brand" damage risk should something go wrong. If an item purchased fails quickly, or an aircraft has a major accident, it is the reputation of the company/airline that is first damaged. The public won't care at first who did the shoddy maintenance. That will come after it is found that the work wasn't done locally.
Remember QF32 A380 (OQA) that blew No.2 engine over Singapore. That sent the share price into a nose dive, and the airwaves ablaze that a QANTAS aircraft had crashed, especially when you had photos of local Indonesians holding a piece of engine cowling with an intact roo logo. Not QANTAS's fault, but they got hammered for a little while. RR had their reputation damaged and cost them a cool $95million for a faulty oil line. Granted, this was a warranty issue, but when something goes bang inflight, people go running and fingers start pointing.
If risk is to be managed, it is best eliminated or reduced to virtually zero. In house work is not 100% guaranteed, but is much closer to 100% as the people employed to do the job have "ownership" of the job.
There's more to a company than glossy financial statements and blurbs from HQ.