I read a notice put out today by QFlink for QF Flight Attendants advising that recruitment will be happening within all regionals being Eastern, Sunstate and Impulse and we can apply to all 3 regionals. We must resign from QF as a flight attendant and join the regionals as a new employee. We will still be required to be interviewed however we bypass part of the recruitment process. We are not guaranted positions and they are not "secondments". Under the terms of Leave without pay we are not able to fly for a regional or so I am lead to believe, however the notice I refer to above clearly states we must resignf first.
No one knows what is going on Geoff Dixon issued a speech earlier in the week "The Future of Work" within Qantas and it was made VERY clear that "contractors" are the way of the future.
Maybe they are offering us the opportunity to resign before we are forced out. Under both the Voluntary and Compulsory Redundancy packages (the later not released YET) there are periods which must lapse before applying for ANY position within QF again.
As for the regionals especially Eastern I feel for you guys as the timing of Dixons speech on "contractors" just by coincidence of course came straight after your YES vote on the EBA.
I have heard QF are looking to slash 100's of crew from short haul and I personally believe this has NOTHING to do with the downturn but in fact cost they are wanting to bringi in cheaper crew (contractors) but first need to shed the more expensive crew.
We are also loosing more of our flying as all Tasman flying that we do will now be going to Jet Connect in Auckland (something like $23K) per year as apposed to us.