For Lookin Down
A bit confused, which at my age is not unusual.
I have nearly 50 years in this business and been an owner/principal or self employed for the entire period.
So I do indeed understand the working poor.
It is a not negotiable rule in the family and our businesses that staff get paid first and we work with what is left, sometimes not much.
In the meantime I have been able to scrabble a reasonable lifestyle and put 3 children through private schools and university. FWIW 7 degrees between them.
No rights, no entitlements, no union just reality central.
As a yoof I declined a Qantas cadet ship and self sponsored my licenses all the way to ATPL including turbine ratings.
So from what I see of the Qantas pay scales from "A" scale on and what I had to pay my own corporate pilots, as a businessman it is as simple as ABC, the QF pilot labour costs and staffing levels, and they are labour costs, simply can't be sustained at their present levels. The Australian LAMES IMHO are worth every dollar.
Doesn't mean working poor, but anything north of $250k needs substantiation.
I am deaf to the argument about more experience needs more money. Might have worked 30 years ago but not now. In any case where are they going to go anyway. I suspect QF top pay scales are probably the highest in the world. Why?
I know for a fact that paying anybody over the odds does not increase skill levels or safety.
No doubt, Joyce has a lot to answer for, but so have the pilots and probably LAME unions.
The airline is on the edge of an abyss. If it goes over which right now is moot, no one wins. And apart from fond memories in 12 months they will be a poignant memory of times past, like PAN AM and many others.
Removing Joyce may make everyone feel a bit better, but it is going to take more than that to fix it.
I simply made the point that a voluntary administration spreads the pain equally between the owners and staff and provides an opportunity to reset the business and go forward from there. The alternative is you are all on the labour market with an entirely different set of rules.
Clearly travelers aren't buying or paying more for the worlds safest airline routine, so where to from here.
I am as disappointed as anybody, but neither do I support the current version from a passenger viewpoint preferring the respect and service I get elsewhere.
I suggest you google the Borghetti presser today, he should be running QF but he's not, and he and Virgin are eating Qantas lunch.
So your point is?