Att: All Qantas Crew, re: Airbus a330 & recruitment

[GalleyHag]

For those of you on the short list I wouldnt hold your breath for a permanent position. This notice was issued by QF HR today.

A Flexible Workforce -

Greater flexibility is a key element in improving the productivity of the Qantas workforce.

This flexibility enables us to match our staffing levels to the peaks and troughs of our activity and respond quickly to external shocks - which have recently become the norm for this industry.

The greater use of part-timers, casuals and contractors in our workforce has received media attention this week - particularly following the stoppages by the TWU on the Melbourne ramp.

Over the coming two years, we plan to increase part-timers, casuals and contractors from our current levels of 15 per cent of the workforce to between 20 and 25 per cent. We will achieve this through normal attrition of full time employees, full time employees volunteering to work part time and growth.

There have been several misleading and untrue claims that we are attempting to establish a "virtual airline" and, even more absurd, the claim that we are creating a more flexible workforce as an anti-Union tactic. Both of these are untrue.

We will achieve this flexibility through attrition and growth and there are no plans which impact our current employees. As has been the case for many years at Qantas, some workers will be sourced from labour hire companies. We are, and will remain, a large employer of Australians with tens of thousands of full time jobs located in Australia.

All these efforts are to ensure we are a competitive organisation with loyal customers and necessary levels of earnings to reinvest in our fleet. The Employee Roadshow commencing next week will further explain how these initiatives complement the recently announced reorganisation of our business.