Ex-union boss hires for Qantas, cabin crew disarmed
Evertonian
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Ex-union boss hires for Qantas, cabin crew disarmed
Scott Rochfort, Sydney
April 16, 2007
HAVING spent years fighting for the rights of Qantas employees, a former union boss is now making millions hiring out lower-paid flight attendants to the national carrier through his labour hire company.
Maurice Alexander's company continued to advertise for casual staff last week, as Qantas offered a further 150 voluntary redundancies to "surplus" full-time cabin crew.
For the chance to work as a casual flight attendant, earning about half the pay of an experienced Qantas long-haul crew member, all Maurice Alexander Management asks is for applicants to bring a $49 money order made out to Qantas to cover the cost of the job interview.
They also might need a spare $700 to cover the cost of their medical examination, security check, first aid certificate, responsible service of alcohol certificate and language test.
Mr Alexander, 55, started his outfit 10 years ago after quitting as a senior industrial officer for the domestic arm of Flight Attendants Association of Australia.
From his humble office in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, Mr Alexander has done well for himself.
According to records obtained by The Age, Mr Alexander's company made a pre-tax profit of $1.57 million last financial year.
Maurice Alexander Management cites its principal activity as "the supply of flight attendant staff to Qantas".
There appears to be no shortage of budding Qantas cabin crew. The airline revealed last year it had 30,000 more applications than vacancies in its system.
Mr Alexander declined to speak to The Age.
Mr Alexander maintains close ties with his former union, which some accuse of also having a cosy relationship with Qantas. The union shares office space with Mr Alexander's labour hire company. The union's domestic secretary, Jo-Ann Davidson, declined to comment.
There are suspicions Qantas is now pitting the union's domestic arm with the more combative international arm.
The divisions consider themselves separate associations.
In recent months, Qantas has exploited an agreement that allows it to use lower-paid casual and full-time domestic crews on up to 70 per cent of its international routes serviced by Boeing 767s and Airbus A330s.
This includes flights into Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai. Casual crews receive less allowances, no sick leave, no holiday leave and no travel benefits.
"What this is about is destroying full-time positions in short-haul and long-haul and replacing them with overseas-based crews, casualised crews and crews on AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements) from Jetstar," said the head of the union's international arm, Michael Mijatov.
Mr Mijatov said the $11.1 billion private equity buy-out of Qantas only fuelled his concerns.
Qantas' general executive manager, John Borghetti, has declined to say whether the airline would attempt in future to cut its links to the FAAA's international arm.
"Realistically I think our cabin crew deserve better than this," he said, in response to the international FAAA's criticisms.
Mr Borghetti declined to rule out Qantas using cheaper casual or short-haul cabin crew on its new fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 787s, which are due to be delivered from next year.
With Qantas' latest redundancies coming just five months after 400 long-haul positions were axed, the airline has cut 1200 higher-paid international crew since 2000.
The cuts come as Qantas looks to increase its Auckland-based long-haul crew.
New Zealand crew get half the pay and 30 per cent more hours than their Australian counterparts.
He got his start at Ansett doing this. When the casuals started flying, you wouldn't believe the fall in URTI's from the full timers!!!
April 16, 2007
HAVING spent years fighting for the rights of Qantas employees, a former union boss is now making millions hiring out lower-paid flight attendants to the national carrier through his labour hire company.
Maurice Alexander's company continued to advertise for casual staff last week, as Qantas offered a further 150 voluntary redundancies to "surplus" full-time cabin crew.
For the chance to work as a casual flight attendant, earning about half the pay of an experienced Qantas long-haul crew member, all Maurice Alexander Management asks is for applicants to bring a $49 money order made out to Qantas to cover the cost of the job interview.
They also might need a spare $700 to cover the cost of their medical examination, security check, first aid certificate, responsible service of alcohol certificate and language test.
Mr Alexander, 55, started his outfit 10 years ago after quitting as a senior industrial officer for the domestic arm of Flight Attendants Association of Australia.
From his humble office in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, Mr Alexander has done well for himself.
According to records obtained by The Age, Mr Alexander's company made a pre-tax profit of $1.57 million last financial year.
Maurice Alexander Management cites its principal activity as "the supply of flight attendant staff to Qantas".
There appears to be no shortage of budding Qantas cabin crew. The airline revealed last year it had 30,000 more applications than vacancies in its system.
Mr Alexander declined to speak to The Age.
Mr Alexander maintains close ties with his former union, which some accuse of also having a cosy relationship with Qantas. The union shares office space with Mr Alexander's labour hire company. The union's domestic secretary, Jo-Ann Davidson, declined to comment.
There are suspicions Qantas is now pitting the union's domestic arm with the more combative international arm.
The divisions consider themselves separate associations.
In recent months, Qantas has exploited an agreement that allows it to use lower-paid casual and full-time domestic crews on up to 70 per cent of its international routes serviced by Boeing 767s and Airbus A330s.
This includes flights into Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai. Casual crews receive less allowances, no sick leave, no holiday leave and no travel benefits.
"What this is about is destroying full-time positions in short-haul and long-haul and replacing them with overseas-based crews, casualised crews and crews on AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements) from Jetstar," said the head of the union's international arm, Michael Mijatov.
Mr Mijatov said the $11.1 billion private equity buy-out of Qantas only fuelled his concerns.
Qantas' general executive manager, John Borghetti, has declined to say whether the airline would attempt in future to cut its links to the FAAA's international arm.
"Realistically I think our cabin crew deserve better than this," he said, in response to the international FAAA's criticisms.
Mr Borghetti declined to rule out Qantas using cheaper casual or short-haul cabin crew on its new fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 787s, which are due to be delivered from next year.
With Qantas' latest redundancies coming just five months after 400 long-haul positions were axed, the airline has cut 1200 higher-paid international crew since 2000.
The cuts come as Qantas looks to increase its Auckland-based long-haul crew.
New Zealand crew get half the pay and 30 per cent more hours than their Australian counterparts.
He got his start at Ansett doing this. When the casuals started flying, you wouldn't believe the fall in URTI's from the full timers!!!
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upfront application fee
I thought that up an front application fee for a job was not legal in Australia otherwise all professional employment agents in other professions would be charging one when industry down turns occur.
These fees for employment could easily be misused and the potential for fraudulant activity by the employer cannot be underestimated. The whole deal smells like some American style con job. MAM should clean up its act.
These fees for employment could easily be misused and the potential for fraudulant activity by the employer cannot be underestimated. The whole deal smells like some American style con job. MAM should clean up its act.
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I had to pay an up front charge when applying for both the paramedics and fire brigade. It was to cover the cost of aptitude testing , police checks etc , so I guess it is legal , though the more shonky operators could abuse it by charging more than the actual cost of the testing etc.
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I find it very sad that Howard is "America-ising" (if there is such a word) Australia.
It is getting to the stage where like the baggage porters in US hotels actually pay for their jobs because they make so much in tips.
Now there's an idea ........If we have to pay for everything when we apply for a job can we expect tips now from the pax when we serve food and drinks.We give them a tab at the end of the meal service and write down the expected tip.
During disembarkartion we can put out our hand and expect a tip just as they do when they take our bags to our rooms.Has anyone tried to leave a restaurant in New York without tipping?
This trend to recoup every last cent is getting too much.
Will Darth and MAM set up a labour source for pilots?
MAM will supply pilots and engineers and anything else that Darth wants for as little money as possible.If you want a job with QF you apply to MAM and put a tick in the square for whatever position you want.
It is getting to the stage where like the baggage porters in US hotels actually pay for their jobs because they make so much in tips.
Now there's an idea ........If we have to pay for everything when we apply for a job can we expect tips now from the pax when we serve food and drinks.We give them a tab at the end of the meal service and write down the expected tip.
During disembarkartion we can put out our hand and expect a tip just as they do when they take our bags to our rooms.Has anyone tried to leave a restaurant in New York without tipping?
This trend to recoup every last cent is getting too much.
Will Darth and MAM set up a labour source for pilots?
MAM will supply pilots and engineers and anything else that Darth wants for as little money as possible.If you want a job with QF you apply to MAM and put a tick in the square for whatever position you want.
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What a way to make a living!
Now I understand why Maurice is making so many of his casuals Not Required while he still employs more crew.When charging $45 per application,why not interview as many as possible to increase my profits?.I'll just forget about my crew that have serviced myself and the airline well and made my business so successful in favour of making as much free money as possible through interviewing other candidates.
He doesn't care about his casuals that have been working for him for several years.He is causing them hardship by giving them 3-4hr days and making them not bavailable due to an overload of crew.I now barely earn $900 per fortnight.When you contact him about this he only replies with "you'll be begging me for work!"
I hope this jerk gets prosecuted for some sort of criminal activity!
