Qantas starts with senior management as airline moves to cut 5000 jobs
THE flying kangaroo has started to cut the first of 5000 from its workforce, with senior managers first to be shown the door.
QANTAS has started carving up its workforce, with unions fuming over a lack of information about the struggling airline's bid to shelve 5000 jobs.
The flying kangaroo began its purge on Wednesday with a number of senior managers the first to be shown the door.
It is understood some workers will finish up at the company before the end of the month.
Union leaders met with Qantas bosses on Wednesday in Sydney but ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said the airline's chief executive Alan Joyce refused to provide any clarity on where the job cuts would come from.
The ACTU asked whether any jobs could be saved if employees could drive more revenue into the business or agree to a wage freeze or cut.
“And the answer we got back was `no',” Mr Oliver said.
Mr Oliver was also disappointed when he sought a commitment from Qantas about separating the domestic and international arms. “We have had no commitment that they would not do that,” he said.
“What they said was basically everything is still on the table. And that is a concern for us as well.” Qantas last month announced a $252 million half-year loss and detailed its $2 billion cost-cutting exercise.
Qantas chief financial officer Gareth Evans said the meeting addressed the wage freeze, and Qantas explained it was not appropriate to give pay rises in the face of significant losses. “The wage freeze will help return the company to profitability,” he said.
The federal government wants to repeal the section of the Qantas Sale Act that governs foreign ownership, enabling majority international ownership of the airline's domestic arm.
Labor and The Greens oppose the move and say it will lead to Qantas jobs being moved offshore.
Meanwhile, Mr Joyce says he hasn't changed his position on the impact of the carbon tax despite the airline's apparently differing statements about the levy's effect on its financial woes.
On Monday, Qantas denied the government's claim that the carbon tax had contributed to the airline's difficulties.
But on Wednesday, the company said: “We have said that the price on carbon is a cost to our business that we have not been able to recover” and Mr Joyce told a lunch forum in Sydney that the carbon tax “has been a big cost for us, it's $106 million last year”. “It is absolutely one of the factors that's impacted the airline, along with the fuel price,” Mr Joyce said at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch.
Mr Joyce said he had always been clear about the effects of the tax.
“There was some commentary, maybe misunderstanding, out there about what our position was on this,” he said.
He also told the lunch he will maintain his strategy of holding 65 per cent of Australia's domestic air travel market despite criticism the capacity war is damaging the airline.
Mr Joyce blamed rival Virgin Australia for the glut of cheap seats in Australia, saying that in absolute seat terms Virgin had added more.
“And they are losing money. Proportionally they are losing more money than Qantas,” he said.
Mr Joyce said he was not surprised by the federal government's decision to refuse a debt guarantee for Qantas in favour of changing elements of the Qantas Sale Act.
Treasurer Joe Hockey on Wednesday ruled out any chance of reconsidering Qantas's request for either a debt guarantee or $3 billion unsecured loan, saying neither option was on the table. “If you give someone an unsecured loan, you work on the basis that you won't see it again,” he said
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