Court Action Against Qantas
Hi all.
Hope we are all enjoying the festive season. I am away camping with the kids but even here at the Ocean Grove Caravan Park where I am with ALAEA President Paul Cousins, some Pilots and Engineers, conversation often turns to that one airline and how it is being destroyed.
We've all been reading the thread about Alan being unhappy and so many contributions regarding the direction the company is being taken. We can all see what is happening but there is a big question that remains unanswered. What can anyone do about it?
Although certainly not a total solution to our collective problems, there may be an avenue that we can pursue in the Federal Court under a clause contained in the LAME workplace determination. I will post the clause shortly but 11.3 of the WD says that Qantas shall 'seek to remain competitive". From what I have seen, Qantas are making decisions that seem to be against any common sense or purpose with regards to the airline itself. Essentially, they aren't remaining competitive by funding failing ventures and placing bills of other subsidiaries onto the mainline account.
I'd like you all to assist the ALAEA with this case. We've decided to do it in a very open way for a number of reasons. Firstly, it will give all the people who follow the thread an idea of what goes into the prep for such a case. Secondly, it will let Qantas know that we are discussing their little paper shuffling exercise and planning to move on them. I'm not concerned with them being pre warned, if we hit them with this case cold, they would have tried to hide evidence anyway. I suspect there is so much of it that they won't be able to cover their tracks.
I have our office chasing the original cost shift questions from two years ago that never got answered. The case should give us the ability to subpoena evidence and internal papers for use in the case. Just a note on that point. You cannot subpoena documents that you simply heard a rumour about as that would be deemed as a fishing exercise. You have to have some reasonable grounds to suspect something exists before you can gain access.
I think between us however, we can build enough of a case to run this one and prove that Qantas are making poor decisions and in doing so undermining the employment of LAMEs by destroying the same company the Pilots and others work for.
That will do for starters. Pls inbox me or post openly. The next few weeks will just be prep until we can review what we have in the office.
cheers
Steve P