QF LHR Base....Legal Issues

[surfside6]

An informed source suggests that QF has despatched members of its Sydney Based legal team to LHR.
There are difficulties with Her Majestys Customs,overseas arrests and theft of company stores.
Other problems relate to the illegal importing of commercial quantities of cigarettes.
These idividuals are not bonded to the business and generally dont care if their employment is terminated.
We are here for a good time not a long seems to be the general position.
On a more lascivious note...
some lucky Second Officers are getting to chop up some of the young lovelies from LHR during their rostered breaks inflight.
Accordingly the rear upper deck TC rest is now known as "the chopping room"

[RedTBar]

Surfside

I understand this is a rumour network but how solid is this information?

The reason I ask this is because we all know that the LHR base is not a happy subject with Australian crew and rumours tend to be thick and fast.

[twiggs]

Those other incidents sound like the old rumours that did the rounds in the first year of the base.

Is any of that new or just the same incidents getting new life?

[mustafagander]

The cigarette thing is old news - happened over a year ago AFAIK. I seem to recall some threatening piece of paper from Turd Towers reminding us all not to mess with HM customs.

As for the S/Os and the LHR lovelies - don't think other ranks haven't been there and done that, as I hear it.

About sending some legal people to LHR, it probably would take management that long to get organised.

[Keg]

Other problems relate to the illegal importing of commercial quantities of cigarettes.

This was more than 12 months ago now unless someone has done it again. Thai based crew from memory.

QF got what it paid for. A crew who provide (mostly) good service but who don't have any sense of loyalty to QF as a business, company or ongoing employment. Most freely admit that they won't be flying with QF in two years time and are just in it for the short term.

[illusion]

You must of heard of the old adage- It has been a succesful overnighter when:

1. The Second officer gets laid twice;
2. The F/O gets laid once; and
3. The captain has a bowel movement :eek:

[lowerlobe]

Huh...That reminds me of an old joke someone told me..

What is the last thing a captain takes off before he has sex with a hostie?

The second officer!!!!!

Some people will do anything to get Australian residency...:E

Oh well someone has to do it....

[haughtney1]

Some people will do anything to get Australian residency...

It would seem the theft of a few minor items was all that was needed a little while back......:E

[peanut pusher]

Another round of BS = Surfside

Cigs were Thai crew who are no longer employed.

What about the 2 Aus crew caught importing and traficing in Class A's in Aus airports in the last year???

How many Aus based crew sacked for stealing and assualt in the time of the LHR base. Do I have to remind you of the LA crew v tech crew punch up, NRT bashing by techie.

The list can go on and on, would you like to rehash gecko in LA with his 2 kg of nose candy etc.

1 LHR crew in 2.5 years arrested for a minor thing that was chucked out of court.

No sexual harrasment cases, no problems except the small minds of the few fools that must make up BS onboard and in any forum to hide there small lives.

Here we go surfside, got some news for you... SYD crew memeber arrested this morning on the QF31 and detained for commercial amount of cig suggling. Detained at airport!!!!!
Quick check it out....it's a fact

Just do your job small mind and we'll do ours:}

Sorry for this rant but 2.5 years of BS is starting to get "old hat" happy to cop the truth but had enough of out right lies.:ok:

[Taildragger67]

Steady there, Haughney...

Some professions are in such short supply here in th'old country that Aussies are getting paid to come over & fill the holes!

There are several of us now running FTSE-100 companies and in Westminster and last year Australians were the biggest foreign buyers of UK property... the reverse-takeover has begun! :E

[lowerlobe]

haughtney1........

"It would seem the theft of a few minor items was all that was needed a little while back......"

Ah yes the good old days....now you have to resort to really nefarious activities to get here.....eeeoohhh :yuk::yuk::yuk:

[haughtney1]

Winding ozzies up is almost as easy as beating the pom football team:}

There are several of us now running FTSE-100 companies and in Westminster and last year Australians were the biggest foreign buyers of UK property... the reverse-takeover has begun!

There are more Kiwi's running FTSE-100 companies BTW:E

[peanut pusher]

Coming from slave traders and pirates who built a crumbling empire on theft and third world exploitation .

I know who got the better deal for sure:p

Umbrella anybody!!!!!!!!!!

[lowerlobe]

haughtney1...There are more Kiwi's running FTSE-100 companies BTW......

Thats exactly why the poms travelled so far in the first place because they wanted to get away....so do the kiwi's.

BTW sounds like a great summer over there at the moment.

If there are any Aussies on the base they must be looking forward to doing trips.

No wonder some of the girls are so desperate to try techies...... to try and get residency in Oz
...:E

[haughtney1]

Thats exactly why the poms travelled so far in the first place because they wanted to get away....so do the kiwi's.

I must have bucked the trend...I left NZ :p

[roamingwolf]

I think thats what he was saying mate

but back to the old curly lhr base.how many of us are in the base now?

and how do the crew who came back think of the dud lhr trips we are left with?

boys and gilrs,the lhr base was set up for a reason and youve got to know that its never going to be a favourite because of that.so peanut,when you see rumours about the base chill out son.

by the way was that a rugby league scrum i saw here earlier?

[DEFCON4]

LHR Based Crews have also trashed a few hotel rooms and caused a particular hotel pool to be drained..... twice.
The theft of company stores is endemic.
We had a member of the QF Legal department on board and en route to LHR about three weeks ago.
Good to see Peanut Puncher is alive and still defending the indefensible
No One in mangement will ever admit the LHR base is a failure.
Talk to some LHR based crew on the fifth floor in HKG and you quickly gain the impression that the whole deal is about partying,rorting and bonking...sounds like the Sydney base in the early 70's.
Go for it guys...it wont last forever.
PS..What is the last thing a Qantas Captains wife does before she has sex? Drives him to the airport.
An oldy but still a goody

[surfside6]

The LHR Base
The Cairns Base(Australian Airlines)
The BKK Base
The AKL Base
Qantas opens these bases and when their industrial usefulness expires so does the base.
Look at all the enthusiasm from Australian Airlines. ..it counts for nothing to those living in the Citadel(or Turd Towers if you will).
The BKK base has some of the best and hardest working crew.
The base will eventually close and those wonderful crew will be asked to work for JetStar(Asia)or be shown the door.
When the LHR base closes people like Peanut Puncher will be devastated.
Your loyalty is to be admired,but it is misplaced.
Qantas will show you no loyalty...you are nothing more than a tool.
Deal with this reality and it will save a lot of tears before bedtime

[RedTBar]

I understand and agree with what you say about loyalty or the lack of it Surfside.
However,as others have asked can you tell us how accurate and recent are those rumours?

[surfside6]

The legal issues with LHR continue.
Management had hoped that as the base matured the problems would subside.
This has proven not to be the case.
The Customs problems have provided the basis for management concern.
While the infractions are smaller they are more numerous.
The cigarettes issue put the base on everyones radar.
The threats and the posturing has done little to improve discipline.
The theft of company stores has reached totally unacceptable levels.
The trashing of hotel rooms threatens accomodation contracts.
There are other issues which if posted here would open up a whole bucket of worms.
Lets not go down that road.
Time,the media and others will reveal all.

[hotnhigh]

Time,the media and others will reveal all......
Yep indeed it will.
However, I believe it will be the increase in customer satisfaction ratings and the expansion of the LHR base.
As for closing it, why???
An abundant stream of crew with experience from other carriers who are wanting to join.
Interesting to speak to the crew who are ex VS, EK, GB and others of their impressions of work environment, terms and conditions etc, etc.
Only adds to a good days flying!

[roamingwolf]

uhoh...here we go again boys and girls..keep a lid on it guys

and yep it was a rugby league scrum i saw:E

[mrpaxing]

like a good party with all the trimmings.wish there would be more of it back in LH. i'll say keep going lhr base you guys are in for the short term, so keep partying;)

[watch your6]

The savings anticipated have not been realized.
How good the customer service surveys is irrelevant.
Just ask AO crew.
The surveys are vetted by the LHR base and are consequently skewed
If the company gets an outcome from this years EBA negotiations with LH CC the longevity of the LHR base will be called into question.
Everything at Qantas is under continuous review.
Who will fly the A380 in and out of LHR?
Most likely the AKL base...they are cheapest and a lot cheaper than LHR CC.
Perhaps the LHR base will be offered positions with JetStar Europe.?
The attrition rate in LHR is the highest in the Qantas group.
People do not leave another carrier to join QFUK unless they have been dismissed or are in transit to somewhere else.
Enjoy the QF catering while you can boys and girls.

[prunezeuss]

For some reason Peanut Puncher and his cohorts believe that they are indispensable to the success of the Qantas Business.
Do you guys fly to Mumbai?
If so what are you smoking?
Its having a bad effect on your real world perception.

[SpiritofAus]

Watchyour6 or Surfside6

Are you posting under different names?

Just remember that Australian based crew also fly to LHR... On CIS, funny to see a couple paxing home tonight on the QF2...hmmm no slip in BKK straight through to SYD, not paxing sick:hmm:


Sounds like your just anti LHR base!

[prunezeuss]

There is an inquisition style management in Sydney.
Crew have been accused of all manner of things.All have been exonerated.
Its a pity the same style of management isnt present in LHR.
No one from the LHR base denies any of the stuff mentioned previously
eg.trashing hotel rooms,theft of company stores and hotel pool drainings.
Fart without permission in Sydney and you are clause elevened.
In LHR if you stole an A/C no one would say a word.
Talk about a protected species.
Perhaps that is about to change.

[surfside6]

One of those crew members is paxing home for compasssionate reasons.
Check the pattern details before shooting your mouth off.

[request deferred]

Somebody has been busted at Heathrow again with two suitcases of cigarettes, not lhr based crew either. Happened in the last two days.
On the point of lhr crew versus syd/akk/bkk can't you see it's really an argument of our tribe versus your tribe...?! It's a basic human instinct to form groups and protect ourselves from others, nothing to do with the quality of the people involved e.g. doctors/nurses pilots/flight attendants upper-deck/lower-deck carlton/collingwood. It's called Tribalism.

[ozskipper]

I haven't contributed to this forum of much lately for a variety of reasons, but this thread managed to get a rise out of me.

With the greatest of respect, most of the comments posted here are either factually incorrect or wildly exaggerated.

Stealing isn't rife and if it were we'd see a lot more people being shown the door. Does anyone actually believe that Qantas Security would treat LHR based crew any differently from SYD based crew? What do they care if they catch LHR, SYD, MEL crew or engineers or techies? They don't report to Customer Services so there mandate is protect the business and its revenue / assets.

There have been no significant incidents involving LHR based crew in slip ports for ages. In fact, if you do actually check about you'll find that the most recent incidents have involved non-LHR based crew.

Can't comment on a hotel pool being drained - never heard of it and it seems a little unlikely coz that sounds like big news to me. What happened? Someone have a poo or something?

There was a comment about the surveys being vetted. How? The surveys are the same as in Australia. They're subject to the same return method as in Australia, so if you're speculating that they're subject to being tampered with by the crew then right back at ya.

Customs infractions - what a load of cr@p. Yes, a number of crew have been pinched bringing in the odd extra carton of fags and bottle of booze. Confiscated, fined and kicked squarely in the @rse. Mind you, 2 BKK based crew were caught with commercial quantities of fags, so has 1 SYD based FA. No one from the LHR base has been busted doing that and innocent until proven guilty as I understand it. Mind you, no one from the LHR base has been implicated in trafficking commercial quantities of narcotics either. If HMRC thought for a second that there was a problem, every single QF inbound flight would be being screened at the control gate - fact.

Attrition rate - highest in the QF Group. Well I don't have access to the entire Groups data - but without a doubt it is much higher than cabin crew in Australia. But then again, there are so many airlines available in the EU to apply for that often the job isn't seen as job for life as it is in Australia. Rightly or wrongly, it is a different environment here.

Recruitment - people don't leave other airlines to joing QFUK? How could you possibly know? Unless you work in recruitment in LHR, that is a completely spurious claim.

I'll freely admit that the LHR base isn't without its issues but then again show me a base that isn't.

If you've been on these forums for a bit you'll know I'm not a "company plant" and that I'm just a regular FA. I don't mind people objecting to o/s bases as it's an individual view - but when you start tarnishing everyone with the same brush, then that's just rude and it needs to responded to.

[lowerlobe]

I think it's time to agree to disagree.

We all know why the LHR base was set up.This will rub most Australian crew the wrong way as it is taking away work and also ruining the LHR trips as we used to know it.This is also the caswe with the other bases but I guess LHR is singled out because of the way it was done.

This then leaves us with those that went to LHR and those that did not and they will I doubt ever see eye to eye.

Whether the rumours are true or not we will probably never find out unless the base closes down.The company as was evident wit the AO base in CNS will never tell us what the real story is so we can forget that.

This thread then will continue as an pointless,endless exercise in frustration.

[funbags]

Surfside,

How can you tell one is compassionate? I make it 3 paxing home (all having different Y patterns)

[surfside6]

On the bottom of the pattern there is an explanation why the pattern was created...reason...... compassionate.
The other crew have file numbers which are imprecise

[watch your6]

Oz- Australian
Skipper-Captain
Ozskipper-neither a Captain or lives in Australia
A Foreign Based FA employed by a hire company and not employed by Qantas.
A tad pretentious

[SpiritofAus]

I was referring to the two crew with the file numbers... I didnt mention anything of the crew member returning on compassionate reasons.

Just pointing out something we could all have a look at.... Guess you make your own judgement based on what you know... Sure it will all be out soon.

I "heard" that it was Aust based crew.

[surfside6]

You didnt mention it...but Funbags did.
I know both these people and I would not imagine that they have done anything untoward

[funbags]

Hi guys. Yeh I did ask because I still don't see with regards to the "bottom of the pattern" how you can tell which is which, I'm sorry (from looking just on CIS). Which y pattern is the compassionate one? :confused:

[surfside6]

Its not important.... you dont know him.
Maybe you guys have restricted access to pattern construction

[ozskipper]

Oz- Australian
Skipper-Captain
Ozskipper-neither a Captain or lives in Australia
A Foreign Based FA employed by a hire company and not employed by Qantas.
A tad pretentious
No need for a personal swipe.
As I said, if you've been on these forums for a bit you'd know that I am actually Australian and a FA who is on LWOP from Qantas - so I am employed by Qantas.
We all make decisions based on own personal circumstances to suit ourselves. No denying it.
As for being pretentious - well I wasn't trying to impress - if you've got qualifications outside of being a FA well call me pretentious! It's nice to have options if I decide that flying isn't for me anymore.


Lowerlobe - couldn't agree with you more. Everyone has a different view and that's just life :) End of! :)

[DEFCON4]

Ok Kiddies can we get back to the topic of this thread?