Qantas grounded

[Shayne Melton]

Lifted straight from the Qantas web site




Qantas will stop all domestic and international flights from 5pm (AEDT) on Saturday 29 October until further notice. This is in response to the damaging industrial action by three unions - the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), the Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU).

QantasLink, Jetstar, Jetconnect services, and our freight services (Express Freighters Australia and Atlas) will continue to operate as normal.

Qantas is providing a full refund for any flights cancelled due to the industrial action. Customers can also rebook their flights for a later date.

Customers are advised not to travel to the airport unless they are travelling on a QantasLink , Jetstar or Jet Connect flight and are urged to reconsider any non-urgent travel and defer their travel plans wherever possible.

Due to the significant nature of this disruption and the uncertainty as to how long the grounding will last, we are only able to manage customer bookings on a day-by-day basis.

Only customers travelling within the next 24 hours should call our Contact Centres on 13 13 13 to discuss their alternatives.

If you are travelling in the next few days/weeks, please monitor the situation on qantas.com. We recommend that you do not change your booking until closer to the date of departure.

We understand that this will have a significant impact on our customers and apologise for the inconvenience that the damaging union action has caused. We thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Customer Support for customers flying on Saturday 29 October 2011




Domestic customers:

If you are away from home and between flights today, Qantas will arrange accommodation, meals and transfers for you.

If you are away from home and beginning your journey today, unfortunately you will need to source your own accommodation we will reimburse you for reasonable out of pocket expenses including accommodation, transfers, meals and incidentals up to a total value of AUD 350 per person per day. A limit of AUD 250 per night for accommodation and AUD 100 for incidentals (meals and phone calls) per person per day applies.
International customers
Qantas will arrange accommodation, meals and transfers for you.

Full details of how to claim your reimbursement, including an online claim form are available on Qantas - flights to Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Asia. Book airfares at qantas.com.. Please ensure you keep all receipts in order to make your claim..

 

[Easy Tiger]

This is a shame but not really a surprise. Qantas was bleeding over $2million a day due to the unions' industrial action, for an airline already losing $200million a year on it's international arm it had no other option.

 

[mickyd213]

The board gives one man a 70% pay rise but won't come to terms with the workers who are after 3%. The 15m a week they are losing would more than cover the cost of the pay rise for every qantas employee... A conservative estimate is that it would take 3-4 weeks at their current rate of loss to cover the pay rise...

Even if they put their prices up $5 per person this would see them earn another 100m a year. (based on 60000 passengers a day) Half of which would satisfy the pay rise. Still it is a crap load of money to fork out...

 

[magpi17]

If the board can receive the huge pay rises it has accepted then the workers are entitled to the same. Its not always the worker that causes problems, and after it is solved if jobs are lost to asia then what will the reaction be.

 

[Easy Tiger]

Well it took a story completely off topic for the nationals to get a mention in the media. Taken from the Brisbane Times website live blog on the Qantas crisis..

"1.38pm: Another sporting team caught up in the fallout: the Northern Territory ten-pin bowling team which has been visiting Rooty Hill for the Ten-Pin bowling championships.

Coaches June Boukolos and Cheryl Munson said they had managed to buy Jetstar tickets online last night when they heard about the Qantas grounding, but they were worried their baggage may exceed the limit.

Mrs Boukolos said it worked out to be $980 for two people to fly to Darwin and "we may have to pay excess baggage".

The team have been in NSW for three weeks and Mrs Boukolos was anxious to get back to see her husband, who is going into hospital for an operation tomorrow."

 

[Casual Observer]

Good on QANTAS.

As for the board, what they get paid has nothing to do with the workers. The workers need to worry about themselves and stop wanting something just because someone else has it. That reminds me of how my kids acted when they were 2 years old.

 

[mickyd213]

Good on QANTAS.

As for the board, what they get paid has nothing to do with the workers. The workers need to worry about themselves and stop wanting something just because someone else has it. That reminds me of how my kids acted when they were 2 years old.

Somehow Gary I think that the EBA negotiations between the unions and qantas would have started sometime ago for it to get to the point it's at now. So industrial action is the workers way of worrying about themselves...

 

[Easy Tiger]

The unions aren't just after more pay, they are trying to secure work processes and systems that are not required by the new generation aircraft which Qantas are acquiring. This is where Australia struggles to match overseas work practices, the jobs aren't required in their current form anymore. This is sad for those employees and I feel for them but the company cannot continue to pay for processes it doesn't require anymore. If it continues down that path, the airline will go bankrupt as it can't compete with other carriers that have lower cost bases.

I completely agree the board, in particular Joyce, should not have got a pay rise. Any company that is losing money should not be giving the CEO any increases. However this is not the reason for the disputes.

 

[mickyd213]

The unions aren't just after more pay, they are trying to secure work processes and systems that are not required by the new generation aircraft which Qantas are acquiring. This is where Australia struggles to match overseas work practices, the jobs aren't required in their current form anymore. This is sad for those employees and I feel for them but the company cannot continue to pay for processes it doesn't require anymore. If it continues down that path, the airline will go bankrupt as it can't compete with other carriers that have lower cost bases.

It is unfortunate that maintenance services have gone this way, but this is a process which is required... A self diagnosing system will not tell you where a problem lies. It will suggest an action to take and that would be to change out a box and you keep doing this until the problem is fixed. Aircraft with flight computers and the like have been doing this for years but you still have a need for QUALIFIED tradesmen to fault find problems that arise outside these parameters. QANTAS has it's safety record for good reason and that is because of it's maintenance services and not because of a computer telling them what is wrong.

As for Australia matching overseas practises... Well, I don't think I would want to. What cost do you put on a life... Our maintenance processes have been world class hence our safety record. I would not want to put my trust in an onboard system telling me that my oil temp is dropping and pressure is increasing only to find that it's a fuel leak... This is a problem that a technician would probably know but the computer would overlook... This is just one example of god knows how many different scenarios.

I think their services are worth an extra $35 a week.

 

[grimmace_25]

Somehow Gary I think that the EBA negotiations between the unions and qantas would have started sometime ago for it to get to the point it's at now. So industrial action is the workers way of worrying about themselves...

Probably started around the time labour got "re-elected", for lack of a better word

 

[Casual Observer]

Somehow Gary I think that the EBA negotiations between the unions and qantas would have started sometime ago for it to get to the point it's at now. So industrial action is the workers way of worrying about themselves...

Yet another person completely missing the point of a post. What the board of QANTAS received or didn't receive has nothing to do with the workers and in no way affects any outcome they do or do not achieve. It is just an excuse they are using.

And for the record, it was QANTAS who grounded the fleet, not the employees who are now losing more money than they are asking for. The employees and unions didn't look after anything.

 

[mickyd213]

Yet another person completely missing the point of a post. What the board of QANTAS received or didn't receive has nothing to do with the workers and in no way affects any outcome they do or do not achieve. It is just an excuse they are using.

I'm sorry... Did I mistakingly use the term Qantas board and what they received in my reference to the workers negotiating an EBA with their employer. I never said the 2 were related nor would I as it is irrelevant. I am also aware that it was Mr Joyce who grounded the fleet and not the unions/ employees. Please don't confuse what I am saying with your own opinions.

Just for the record... What is it the workers are wanting because someone else has it? If it's a payrise because Joyce and the board got one then I think that is way off the mark.

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

The board gives one man a 70% pay rise but won't come to terms with the workers who are after 3%.

We got a similar situation at the ATO where the head wants a raise from $500k to $700k yet can't offer staff more than 3% and is making some staff work reduced hours due to budget cuts. Typical snout in the trough. Bit like the Qantas bloke.

 

[mickyd213]

Well Fair work Australia has ordered an end to the dispute and flights look set to resume sometime today or tomorrow. The company and the workers have 21 days to come to an agreement and if none is reached, Fair work Australia can step in to put one in place. One can only hope that an agreement is reached before the deadline for all concerned.