Wirraway
31st Jan 2005, 03:14
Mon "The Australian"
Union OKs Qantas deal
January 31, 2005
A UNION, representing about 10,500 Qantas staff, has advised its members to vote in favour of the latest company workplace agreement, as fears over massive jobs cuts subside.
Earlier this month, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said the airline could not afford to be all-Australian as competitors lowered costs by sourcing up to 30 per cent of staff overseas.
Mr Dixon said if international benchmarks were followed, more than 7000 jobs would move overseas.
But the Australian Services Union said today they had been reassured by the company their members' jobs were not under any immediate threat.
"We have had some fairly intense negotiations with them (Qantas)," ASU national assistant secretary Linda White said today.
"They are not saying that the ASU members are under threat.
"We've taken that as their current position, but it could change."
In a letter to the union, Qantas said no areas of "ASU covered work were targeted for offshoring".
"All aspects of our operations are always under review as part of the Sustainable Future program on a regular basis."
The company also reconfirmed it would not move call centre jobs offshore.
"There is nothing to advise on your question of when a function performed by ASU covered staff will be offshored, because no such decision has been taken," it said.
"Similarly, no decision has been taken in this area that would lead to redundancies in the ASU's area of coverage."
The ASU has been in Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiations since the expiry of the last EBA in June last year.
Postal vote forms, which were sent to members earlier this month, were due to be counted just after the vote closes on Thursday.
So far, just over 3000 ballot forms had been returned by members, Ms White said.
She said it was hard to tell which way the vote would go, but fears of massive job losses were at this stage not a factor.
She said in light of the discussions with Qantas the union had been "recommending a yes to members".
Ms White said the new EBA was a roll-over of the previous agreement with members to receive a three per cent pay rise each year for three years, if they vote in favour of the EBA.
Results should be known by Thursday afternoon.
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Union OKs Qantas deal
January 31, 2005
A UNION, representing about 10,500 Qantas staff, has advised its members to vote in favour of the latest company workplace agreement, as fears over massive jobs cuts subside.
Earlier this month, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said the airline could not afford to be all-Australian as competitors lowered costs by sourcing up to 30 per cent of staff overseas.
Mr Dixon said if international benchmarks were followed, more than 7000 jobs would move overseas.
But the Australian Services Union said today they had been reassured by the company their members' jobs were not under any immediate threat.
"We have had some fairly intense negotiations with them (Qantas)," ASU national assistant secretary Linda White said today.
"They are not saying that the ASU members are under threat.
"We've taken that as their current position, but it could change."
In a letter to the union, Qantas said no areas of "ASU covered work were targeted for offshoring".
"All aspects of our operations are always under review as part of the Sustainable Future program on a regular basis."
The company also reconfirmed it would not move call centre jobs offshore.
"There is nothing to advise on your question of when a function performed by ASU covered staff will be offshored, because no such decision has been taken," it said.
"Similarly, no decision has been taken in this area that would lead to redundancies in the ASU's area of coverage."
The ASU has been in Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiations since the expiry of the last EBA in June last year.
Postal vote forms, which were sent to members earlier this month, were due to be counted just after the vote closes on Thursday.
So far, just over 3000 ballot forms had been returned by members, Ms White said.
She said it was hard to tell which way the vote would go, but fears of massive job losses were at this stage not a factor.
She said in light of the discussions with Qantas the union had been "recommending a yes to members".
Ms White said the new EBA was a roll-over of the previous agreement with members to receive a three per cent pay rise each year for three years, if they vote in favour of the EBA.
Results should be known by Thursday afternoon.
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