Texas Tony Rattled?..............
I wanted to say a few things about a notice issued by Steve Purvinas of the ALAEA on 11 July.
Firstly, I’d like to reiterate that this week has been tough on all of our people. A decision to retrench an employee is not one that is taken lightly, particularly when the employee has provided many years of loyal service to Qantas. The decision has profound impact on the employee, his or her family and all of his or her workmates. I would also like to thank the delegates who have provided support to impacted employees both in 1:1 meetings and separate discussions. Your empathy, professionalism and support have been evident throughout.
These decisions are ones that have been taken following careful analysis and have been the subject of months of consultation. We have mitigated a vast majority of the positions with absolutely no adverse trends in on time performance, overtime or Fleet Health.
In his notice, Steve refers to the working of overtime and cites this as evidence that there are now insufficient employees to acquit the maintenance work. This is not the case. An amount of overtime will always be a feature of our working environments, and indeed our workplace determination specifically refers to the requirement of each employee to work reasonable overtime. There will remain a requirement for some overtime, particularly as we re-balance crews within the ports, employees return from leave under the leave burn program that is being wound up in Sydney and the inevitable disruption that notifications of this sort create in any business is worked through. We are confident, and have provided extensive information to the Union in relation to this, that the numbers we have modeled in each port are appropriate to projected workloads.
Steve also alleges that LAMEs are being pressured to ‘cut corners’ and that operations managers have been employed to pressure you to cut corners. This is absolute hogwash. Let me be clear here. Qantas is justifiably proud of its history of safety and quality. We have a strong culture of safety and reporting. I would ask each and every one of you to continue to uphold this culture by continuing to work to the standards of safety and professionalism that you always do. Form 500s and 2000s are tools available to you to support our reporting culture. I encourage each of you to continue to use these tools in good faith and for their proper purpose.
Of all the statements made in his notice, the most remarkable is “to protect your job we request that you not take any action to assist the company over and above your normal duties” and then goes on to talk about “50 Qantas planes being parked up against the fence…” I can understand his motivation to protect jobs, I have the same desire! However, there will simply be no winners from a strategy that seeks to damage Qantas in our key areas of superiority against our competition. During my time working with you, I have again and again been delighted by the professionalism and willingness to go the extra mile for our customers that Qantas Engineers display. Whether it is ensuring the return of a passenger’s bag, or working as a team to ensure on time performance, it is these actions that will give Qantas the best chance of securing its future, not the negative and damaging tactics promoted by the ALAEA Federal Secretary. After all we are Qantas!
Thanks for all you do.
Tony
The stuff this guy spouts out of his mouth is unbelievable.
