Yadot nailed it,
Airline management is focused on cost, labour a big airline cost, Qantas took a quantum leap in fear escalation in 2011 after a manufactured 'terminal decline' to control cost.
Right before the 'magic pudding turnaround' an overdue (long haul) fleet write down engineered an
on paper loss (which incidentally serves as a big tax deduction!) Most unions took the bait and signed up for an 18 month pay freeze, whilst management options quietly awarded in 2012 paid off handsomely.
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...15-ato-reports
The
real benefit is a fearful, acquiescent workforce, an avoid, even adversarial IR posture (as shown in Ryan air and replicated to a large degree at JQ- where Joyce and many JQ senior personal learned the dark arts of IR) and progressively HR dominated processes that reduce the likelihood that employees who are critical thinking and decisive, will be filtered out at recruitment. There is boundless literature out there on IR models and what Qantas does is clearly articulated for the curious.
Sadly, overall this approach increases total factor cost, but in a company devoid of ideas, and a dinosaur Chairman like Clifford (look up his form at Rio Tinto with regard to unions and labour), any wonder this is the result? It is all they know; a continued war on staff.