Qantas plan to shift 25pc of cabin crews overseas
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Townsville,Nth Queensland
Posts: 2,717
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Qantas plan to shift 25pc of cabin crews overseas
Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"
Qantas plan to shift 25pc of cabin crews overseas
By Cosima Marriner and Scott Rochfort
May 27, 2004
Qantas is planning to base a quarter of its international cabin crew in London from next year to save on hotel and meal costs, a leaked internal document reveals.
The cabin crew "resource planning" document emerged hours after Qantas's chief executive, Geoff Dixon, publicly argued for sending more of the airline's jobs offshore, but denied any decisions had been made.
Mr Dixon told the National Press Club that Qantas "would be a lot more efficient" if it hired workers overseas. "No one wants to do this, but we're going to have to face up to it," he said.
Mr Dixon said there were "no specific plans at the moment" to boost Qantas's offshore workforce. "Right at the moment I've got nothing on my desk about it."
But the leaked document outlining staffing requirements for 2004-05 reveals the airline's "target" to eventually base 25 per cent - or 840 - of its international cabin crew overseas. Six per cent of Qantas's 35,000 employees are now based overseas, including 350 flight attendants.
Mr Dixon said he would discuss the issue with 250 managers next Tuesday and then meet union representatives.
The leaked document says Qantas plans to hire 150 crew on eight-month contracts by August "to bridge the gap" until its London base is established.
The plans appear to breach the agreement Qantas signed with unions two years ago to cap the number of cabin crew based at its two existing overseas bases - Bangkok and Auckland - at 370.
The Flight Attendants Association said Qantas's Bangkok-based crew are paid 20 per cent, and its Auckland based-crew 60 per cent, of the wages of their Australian counterparts.
The association said it was "absolutely outraged" by the plans. "We've been talking to the company in the past few weeks about a London base," the head of its international division, Michael Mijatov, said.
"What Qantas management told us was that no decision had been made. If they don't give us an absolute answer we'll be calling meetings with our members to discuss this issue."
In his press club speech, Mr Dixon said offshore employment was a "sensitive" issue but it was inevitable that Qantas would shift more jobs overseas as part of efforts to maintain its international competitiveness.
"We're so far away from the rest of the world, Qantas would be a lot more efficient by sourcing labour from other areas than we do," he said. "We've resisted this and we continue to resist this as long as we can get the necessary savings in Australia, [but] there will be times when we have to."
He said Qantas could save $20 million a year if it moved 400 workers from one of the airline's larger divisions overseas to a developed country.
It is believed he was referring to plans to base some cabin crew overseas, which would cut hotel and meal allowance expenses for crew rested in long-haul destinations. Mr Dixon refused to quantify how many Qantas staff he would like based overseas. Nor would he estimate how much money the company could save with more offshore staff.
===========================================
Thurs "The Australian"
Qantas offshore job plan
By Steve Creedy and Sophie Morris
May 27, 2004
QANTAS is considering sending one in four long-haul flight attendant jobs overseas – up to 1020 positions in total – in a cost-cutting bid that has incensed unions.
Internal Qantas documents obtained by The Australian suggest the airline could send up to an additional 650 jobs overseas as part of a plan, codenamed Hawaii, believed to involve a base in London. An agreement with the union already allows it to hire 370 overseas flight attendants.
News of the proposal angered the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, which could not rule out industrial action during enterprise bargaining later this year.
FAAA international assistant secretary Michael Mijatov accused Qantas executives "of padding their own pockets at the expense of Australian employment".
The union was also upset at what it believed was a plan to employ 150 flight attendants on fixed-term contracts and dump them when offshore jobs came on line, he said.
"We're outraged if this document is true," Mr Mijatov said.
"Qantas . . . in the public arena trades on its being on an Australian carrier – how dare it even use the words Spirit of Australia?" It presently employs 330 foreign flight attendants.
Yesterday's leaked document indicates Qantas employs 3756 long-haul flight attendants but it projects this to rise to 4072 by next March.
If that happens, the airline's 25 per cent "target" would equate to 1018 jobs.
The document emerged after Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon warned at the National Press Club in Canberra that the airline needed to send more jobs offshore to remain competitive in a "psychoid" global aviation market.
Mr Dixon confirmed last night that the issue was under consideration but said no decision had been made "on any offshore employment for any area of Qantas".
"I intend to discuss this issue and the challenges facing Qantas with 250 senior managers at a meeting next Tuesday," Mr Dixon said.
"I then intend to meet with all the unions represented at Qantas and representatives of the ACTU to take them through all the issues, including consolidation and offshore employment."
Mr Dixon told the Press Club that labour was the airline's most expensive outlay and said employing offshore was the best way to cut costs.
He said moving 400 jobs to a First World country, offering First World salaries and conditions - believed to be a reference to the London plan - could save Qantas more than $20million a year.
But Mr Mijatov said it would deprive Australians of a chance of a job with Qantas.
"The Australian taxpayers built this company and the Australian government paid off their debt at the time of privatisation. If this is the thanks they think they owe to the community, I think they've absolutely got their priorities wrong."
============================================
Qantas plan to shift 25pc of cabin crews overseas
By Cosima Marriner and Scott Rochfort
May 27, 2004
Qantas is planning to base a quarter of its international cabin crew in London from next year to save on hotel and meal costs, a leaked internal document reveals.
The cabin crew "resource planning" document emerged hours after Qantas's chief executive, Geoff Dixon, publicly argued for sending more of the airline's jobs offshore, but denied any decisions had been made.
Mr Dixon told the National Press Club that Qantas "would be a lot more efficient" if it hired workers overseas. "No one wants to do this, but we're going to have to face up to it," he said.
Mr Dixon said there were "no specific plans at the moment" to boost Qantas's offshore workforce. "Right at the moment I've got nothing on my desk about it."
But the leaked document outlining staffing requirements for 2004-05 reveals the airline's "target" to eventually base 25 per cent - or 840 - of its international cabin crew overseas. Six per cent of Qantas's 35,000 employees are now based overseas, including 350 flight attendants.
Mr Dixon said he would discuss the issue with 250 managers next Tuesday and then meet union representatives.
The leaked document says Qantas plans to hire 150 crew on eight-month contracts by August "to bridge the gap" until its London base is established.
The plans appear to breach the agreement Qantas signed with unions two years ago to cap the number of cabin crew based at its two existing overseas bases - Bangkok and Auckland - at 370.
The Flight Attendants Association said Qantas's Bangkok-based crew are paid 20 per cent, and its Auckland based-crew 60 per cent, of the wages of their Australian counterparts.
The association said it was "absolutely outraged" by the plans. "We've been talking to the company in the past few weeks about a London base," the head of its international division, Michael Mijatov, said.
"What Qantas management told us was that no decision had been made. If they don't give us an absolute answer we'll be calling meetings with our members to discuss this issue."
In his press club speech, Mr Dixon said offshore employment was a "sensitive" issue but it was inevitable that Qantas would shift more jobs overseas as part of efforts to maintain its international competitiveness.
"We're so far away from the rest of the world, Qantas would be a lot more efficient by sourcing labour from other areas than we do," he said. "We've resisted this and we continue to resist this as long as we can get the necessary savings in Australia, [but] there will be times when we have to."
He said Qantas could save $20 million a year if it moved 400 workers from one of the airline's larger divisions overseas to a developed country.
It is believed he was referring to plans to base some cabin crew overseas, which would cut hotel and meal allowance expenses for crew rested in long-haul destinations. Mr Dixon refused to quantify how many Qantas staff he would like based overseas. Nor would he estimate how much money the company could save with more offshore staff.
===========================================
Thurs "The Australian"
Qantas offshore job plan
By Steve Creedy and Sophie Morris
May 27, 2004
QANTAS is considering sending one in four long-haul flight attendant jobs overseas – up to 1020 positions in total – in a cost-cutting bid that has incensed unions.
Internal Qantas documents obtained by The Australian suggest the airline could send up to an additional 650 jobs overseas as part of a plan, codenamed Hawaii, believed to involve a base in London. An agreement with the union already allows it to hire 370 overseas flight attendants.
News of the proposal angered the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, which could not rule out industrial action during enterprise bargaining later this year.
FAAA international assistant secretary Michael Mijatov accused Qantas executives "of padding their own pockets at the expense of Australian employment".
The union was also upset at what it believed was a plan to employ 150 flight attendants on fixed-term contracts and dump them when offshore jobs came on line, he said.
"We're outraged if this document is true," Mr Mijatov said.
"Qantas . . . in the public arena trades on its being on an Australian carrier – how dare it even use the words Spirit of Australia?" It presently employs 330 foreign flight attendants.
Yesterday's leaked document indicates Qantas employs 3756 long-haul flight attendants but it projects this to rise to 4072 by next March.
If that happens, the airline's 25 per cent "target" would equate to 1018 jobs.
The document emerged after Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon warned at the National Press Club in Canberra that the airline needed to send more jobs offshore to remain competitive in a "psychoid" global aviation market.
Mr Dixon confirmed last night that the issue was under consideration but said no decision had been made "on any offshore employment for any area of Qantas".
"I intend to discuss this issue and the challenges facing Qantas with 250 senior managers at a meeting next Tuesday," Mr Dixon said.
"I then intend to meet with all the unions represented at Qantas and representatives of the ACTU to take them through all the issues, including consolidation and offshore employment."
Mr Dixon told the Press Club that labour was the airline's most expensive outlay and said employing offshore was the best way to cut costs.
He said moving 400 jobs to a First World country, offering First World salaries and conditions - believed to be a reference to the London plan - could save Qantas more than $20million a year.
But Mr Mijatov said it would deprive Australians of a chance of a job with Qantas.
"The Australian taxpayers built this company and the Australian government paid off their debt at the time of privatisation. If this is the thanks they think they owe to the community, I think they've absolutely got their priorities wrong."
============================================
Last edited by Wirraway; 26th May 2004 at 15:18.
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 86
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
time for the F/A s and LAME s to get together me thinks
www.jetsafe.com.au
www.jetsafe.com.au
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: australia
Posts: 179
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Be good if the LAME's, the FA's, the AWU, the TWU and the pilots could all get together and support one another.
Unlikely to happen with the pilots, though. There is a group who is anxious to undercut and usurp the entire process.
Good luck to you, FA's. What is happenning to you overseas has already happenned to us right here at home.
Unlikely to happen with the pilots, though. There is a group who is anxious to undercut and usurp the entire process.
Good luck to you, FA's. What is happenning to you overseas has already happenned to us right here at home.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Townsville,Nth Queensland
Posts: 2,717
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sat "Sydney Morning Herald"
Qantas warned of Heathrow union battle
By Scott Rochfort
May 29, 2004
Qantas could face widespread industrial action at Heathrow Airport if it pushes ahead with plans to base more of its 35,000-strong workforce overseas without the support of Australian unions, the London-based International Transport Workers Federation warned yesterday.
Amid revelations of Qantas cost-cutting plans to base 25 per cent of international flight attendants overseas, the federation's aviation secretary, Shane Enright, said Qantas could face an industrial campaign of the same magnitude as action that crippled British Airways in July 1997.
The Flight Attendants Association of Australia has already warned cabin crew will strike in December if Qantas pushes to break the existing cap of 370 overseas flight crew based in Auckland and Bangkok.
Internal documents obtained by the Herald this week reveal plans to set up a London crew base with 400 flight attendants, and build offshore crew numbers to about 840.
"We will do everything that we can to support them [the Australian union]," Mr Enright said.
British Airways lost tens of millions of pounds during its 1997 dispute with flight attendants. The International Transport Workers Federation helped co-ordinate a widespread picketing and publicity campaign against the airline.
"Qantas needs to understand that the problem doesn't come on the day the dispute starts. The problem comes when the public is aware there is going to be a dispute," Mr Enright said.
But he was not against the plans as long as Qantas had the approval of Australian unions. United Airlines had set up an 800-strong crew base at Heathrow in 1991, he noted.
Air New Zealand approached the international union before setting up its crew base at Heathrow five years ago.
The head of Air New Zealand's international division, Ed Sims, conceded wages were much higher in Britain but said hotel bills had been cut.
"Having crew domiciled in London makes good sense financially. And from a customer service perspective having British crew is not a bad thing when 70 per cent of the customers you fly from Heathrow are British," Mr Sims said.
Air New Zealand's Heathrow-based crews fly to Los Angeles, where they hand over to Auckland-based crews.
The Australian union says the average Qantas flight attendant is rested for three days in Singapore or Bangkok and two days in London on a 52-hour return trip to London.
The head of the US-based Association of Flight Attendants at Heathrow, Kevin Creighan, suspects the Qantas plan is aimed not only at reducing costs but also at weakening the union base in Australia. "Hiring 400 people on temporary non-unionised agreements is just a way to get rid of unionised staff in Sydney," said Mr Creighan, who relocated to Britain as a United Airlines flight attendant in 1991.
"They don't care if people have 15 years' experience or 15 minutes' experience. All they care about is getting staff on board with half the costs."
===========================================
Qantas warned of Heathrow union battle
By Scott Rochfort
May 29, 2004
Qantas could face widespread industrial action at Heathrow Airport if it pushes ahead with plans to base more of its 35,000-strong workforce overseas without the support of Australian unions, the London-based International Transport Workers Federation warned yesterday.
Amid revelations of Qantas cost-cutting plans to base 25 per cent of international flight attendants overseas, the federation's aviation secretary, Shane Enright, said Qantas could face an industrial campaign of the same magnitude as action that crippled British Airways in July 1997.
The Flight Attendants Association of Australia has already warned cabin crew will strike in December if Qantas pushes to break the existing cap of 370 overseas flight crew based in Auckland and Bangkok.
Internal documents obtained by the Herald this week reveal plans to set up a London crew base with 400 flight attendants, and build offshore crew numbers to about 840.
"We will do everything that we can to support them [the Australian union]," Mr Enright said.
British Airways lost tens of millions of pounds during its 1997 dispute with flight attendants. The International Transport Workers Federation helped co-ordinate a widespread picketing and publicity campaign against the airline.
"Qantas needs to understand that the problem doesn't come on the day the dispute starts. The problem comes when the public is aware there is going to be a dispute," Mr Enright said.
But he was not against the plans as long as Qantas had the approval of Australian unions. United Airlines had set up an 800-strong crew base at Heathrow in 1991, he noted.
Air New Zealand approached the international union before setting up its crew base at Heathrow five years ago.
The head of Air New Zealand's international division, Ed Sims, conceded wages were much higher in Britain but said hotel bills had been cut.
"Having crew domiciled in London makes good sense financially. And from a customer service perspective having British crew is not a bad thing when 70 per cent of the customers you fly from Heathrow are British," Mr Sims said.
Air New Zealand's Heathrow-based crews fly to Los Angeles, where they hand over to Auckland-based crews.
The Australian union says the average Qantas flight attendant is rested for three days in Singapore or Bangkok and two days in London on a 52-hour return trip to London.
The head of the US-based Association of Flight Attendants at Heathrow, Kevin Creighan, suspects the Qantas plan is aimed not only at reducing costs but also at weakening the union base in Australia. "Hiring 400 people on temporary non-unionised agreements is just a way to get rid of unionised staff in Sydney," said Mr Creighan, who relocated to Britain as a United Airlines flight attendant in 1991.
"They don't care if people have 15 years' experience or 15 minutes' experience. All they care about is getting staff on board with half the costs."
===========================================
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Australia
Posts: 337
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Editorial - Sydney Morning Herald: 29 May 2004
I'm not normally into just the 'cut and paste' routine, but today's editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald offers a somewhat different viewpoint on what will likely be a turbulent EBA negotiation.
QANTAS JOINS JOBS FLIGHT
"The Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon, notes a "knee-jerk reaction" each time a company suggests the shift of Australian jobs overseas. To him, it is all a question of hard-nosed common sense. In the era of globalisation, where regulatory boundaries are increasingly irrelevant, companies meet rivals on competitive costs or they perish. The tough arithmetic for locating overseas 840 Qantas cabin crew - a quarter of the airline's international total - is a lot more compelling than Mr Dixon was forthcoming until a leaked internal document exposed Qantas's intentions. Now the plan is out, negotiations should proceed with greater frankness".
"Mr Dixon says Qantas needs to put more workers offshore to increase efficiency and profitability so that the airline can compete more strongly internationally and expand job opportunities in Australia. That might sound self-contradictory. Consider, however, the crew logistics of the longest haul. Flight attendants leaving Sydney rest in a stopover, Singapore or Bangkok, for 24 hours before flying on to London where they spend three or four days in rest. The return flight involves a 48-hour stopover. By the time they return to Sydney, they will have spent 52 hours in flight for their nine days away".
The location of cabin crew in London might not save much on wages but would put a big dent in Qantas's crew accommodation costs. Naturally, Qantas also sees value - $20 million a year worth - in replacing 400 Australians with cheaper overseas workers".
"There are threads, however, not necessarily immediately apparent to a company accountant's eye. Australian workers fear displacement for reasons of individual economic stress, and the community worries whether some modern paradox of wealth equates affluence inversely with job security. The wealthier a nation gets, it sometimes seems, the less able it is to retain the means of wealth for its people. The jobs export in footwear, clothing and textiles to low-cost locations over the past two or three decades, and of call centre jobs more recently, is indicative".
"Qantas has a special, symbolic place in Australian life. If any changes such as those Mr Dixon now rightly proposes become inevitable in these tough times they must be made very carefully. Mr Dixon wants to soften up the unions ahead of a December renegotiation of job rules. His remarks should not be lightly dismissed as bluff and bravado. Too many international airlines have collapsed because they failed to adapt to competition, a result that serves neither shareholder nor worker".
QANTAS JOINS JOBS FLIGHT
"The Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon, notes a "knee-jerk reaction" each time a company suggests the shift of Australian jobs overseas. To him, it is all a question of hard-nosed common sense. In the era of globalisation, where regulatory boundaries are increasingly irrelevant, companies meet rivals on competitive costs or they perish. The tough arithmetic for locating overseas 840 Qantas cabin crew - a quarter of the airline's international total - is a lot more compelling than Mr Dixon was forthcoming until a leaked internal document exposed Qantas's intentions. Now the plan is out, negotiations should proceed with greater frankness".
"Mr Dixon says Qantas needs to put more workers offshore to increase efficiency and profitability so that the airline can compete more strongly internationally and expand job opportunities in Australia. That might sound self-contradictory. Consider, however, the crew logistics of the longest haul. Flight attendants leaving Sydney rest in a stopover, Singapore or Bangkok, for 24 hours before flying on to London where they spend three or four days in rest. The return flight involves a 48-hour stopover. By the time they return to Sydney, they will have spent 52 hours in flight for their nine days away".
The location of cabin crew in London might not save much on wages but would put a big dent in Qantas's crew accommodation costs. Naturally, Qantas also sees value - $20 million a year worth - in replacing 400 Australians with cheaper overseas workers".
"There are threads, however, not necessarily immediately apparent to a company accountant's eye. Australian workers fear displacement for reasons of individual economic stress, and the community worries whether some modern paradox of wealth equates affluence inversely with job security. The wealthier a nation gets, it sometimes seems, the less able it is to retain the means of wealth for its people. The jobs export in footwear, clothing and textiles to low-cost locations over the past two or three decades, and of call centre jobs more recently, is indicative".
"Qantas has a special, symbolic place in Australian life. If any changes such as those Mr Dixon now rightly proposes become inevitable in these tough times they must be made very carefully. Mr Dixon wants to soften up the unions ahead of a December renegotiation of job rules. His remarks should not be lightly dismissed as bluff and bravado. Too many international airlines have collapsed because they failed to adapt to competition, a result that serves neither shareholder nor worker".
