Qantas strikes start Thursday, rounding out a tough week for top female CEOs

Engineering staff at Qantas will strike on Thursday as Vanessa Hudson juggles repairing the airline’s brand while keeping costs down.

Qantas workers are gearing up for industrial action on Thursday. Picture: Dan Peled

Qantas workers are gearing up for industrial action on Thursday as staff among its 1,100-strong workforce involved in maintenance conduct rolling stop works over pay conditions, which the airline says will not impact flights.

The two-to-four hour PIA covers staff in the Australian Workers Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia. These are known as the Qantas Engineers Alliance and comprise three of the 14 unions that operate within Australia’s biggest airline.

For Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson, the industrial action comes at a time the airline is desperately trying to turn around its reputation with customers, staff and the government, leaving the usually-tough negotiator at a potential disadvantage on wage talks.

It’s understood that some workers at the Brisbane heavy maintenance hangar conducted a “walk out” on Ms Hudson a few weeks ago when she travelled north to present a strategy update, as the company posted its second-highest profit on record. Those staff showed their protest by leaving before she took to the microphone.

Engineering staff at Qantas will strike on Thursday as CEO Vanessa Hudson juggles repairing the airline’s brand. Picture: Dan Peled

The strikes at Qantas round out what’s certainly been a tough week for the nation’s top female CEOs.

Leah Weckert at Coles, and Amanda Bardwell at Woolworths are in the spotlight because the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has launched joint proceedings alleging the two biggest supermarkets spiked prices for a brief period ahead of an item going onto promotion with some prices rising as much as 15 per cent.

The allegations by the ACCC come after the competition regulator settled a dispute earlier this year with Qantas over so-called ghost flights. Ms Hudson agreed to a $120m settlement before that case went to court.

In all three cases, the alleged activity took place under the watch of former CEOs — Brad Banducci at Woolworths, Steven Cain at Coles, and Alan Joyce at Qantas.

There is a term coined to describe the theory that women are more likely to break through to leadership roles, ie the “glass ceiling,” at companies facing higher than usual risk, known as the “glass cliff.”

It’s possible that new Myer executive chair Olivia Wirth, who was pipped at the post for the Qantas top job falls into this category too, having recently taken on the role at the former-great department store, where she has her work cut out helping the firm find growth in depressed market environment.

On Friday, Ms Wirth announced a 28 per cent slide in net profit at Myer to $43.5m, after more than $12m in impairments and tough trading conditions hit earnings.

Others who might fit on the so-called glass cliff list include Michelle Bullock who was appointed Reserve Bank of Australia governor one year ago, after her predecessor Philip Lowe faced public fury for his guidance that interest rates weren’t likely to rise until 2024. He ultimately lifted the cash rate from near zero in May 2022, with another 12 rate hikes following.

Global search firm Russell Reynolds Associates supports the “glass cliff theory,” which contends that “women are often appointed to senior roles at especially difficult moments for organisations and then subjected to particular scrutiny.”

RRA’s UK boss Laura Sanderson has previously stated that the glass cliff theory and ‘gendered’ thinking both contribute to the mismatched expectations which often lead to the removal of women CEOs: “We are not recognising what good looks like in some women CEOs in the way that we should,” Ms Sanderson said in report late last year.

It’s unlikely that the above-mentioned chiefs are going to be leaving anytime soon, having all – bar Ms Wirth who was a Qantas long-timer – worked their way up through the companies they now run.

But that doesn’t mean they will find the hurdles they face easy to jump.

At Qantas, Ms Hudson last month agreed a deal of up to a 30 per cent wage hike with the Flight Attendants Association of Australia that some believed was “too generous” The company is also understood to have agreed a 30 per cent rise for short haul pilots as it tackles new Same Job Same Pay laws.

These seemingly generous actions followed last year’s findings that the airline illegally fired 1500 baggage handlers during Mr Joyce’s reign, with Qantas yet to receive its penalty.

Qantas baggage handlers at work at Brisbane airport. Picture: Dan Peled

The strike by the Qantas Engineers Alliance starts on Thursday and should not impact customers, according to the airline.

“We’re putting contingencies in place and don’t currently expect this industrial action to have an impact on customers.”

“We’ve held a series of meetings with the unions and made progress on a number of items. We want to reach an agreement that includes pay rises and lifestyle benefits for our people.”

The employees striking are part of the Aircraft Maintenance Engineers teams and cover almost half of the engineers that work across the Qantas business.

Steve Murphy, AMWU National Secretary said after years of wage freezes “while Qantas raked in billions in profit,” workers have become “frustrated by management’s refusal to negotiate a fair deal.”

“Nothing has changed at Qantas — their workers feel undervalued, underpaid and under-appreciated,” said Mr Murphy.

Further PIA is set to take place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week after their enterprise agreements expired at the end of June.

Over at the supermarket giants, Ms Weckert has vowed to fight the allegations filed in the Federal Court on Monday by the ACCC, while Ms Bardwell said Woolworths will review the claims.