Qantas confirms 2000 job shedding

The embattled airline has revealed 2000 jobs will be axed across 10 Australian airports, as part of its operational overhaul to ensure to the flying kangaroo can remain in the skies beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

Qantas’ decision comes after months of operational reviews which began in August to reduce the size of the business following subdued travel numbers due to the health crisis.

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Monday’s announcement brings the total job losses in Qantas to approximately 8500 of its 29,000 pre pandemic workforce.

The aviation industry has been financially obliterated by COVID-19, with the health crisis causing Qantas to report a $2.7 billion statutory loss for the 2020 financial year.

Qantas chief executive of domestic and international operations, Andrew David said the industry has been turned “upside down” and it will take years to recoup from the financial damage inflicted by the global shutdown.

“This is another tough day for Qantas, particularly for our ground handling teams and their families,” Mr David said.

“Unfortunately, COVID has turned aviation upside down. Airlines around the world are having to make dramatic decisions in order to survive and the damage will take years to repair.”

The premier airline said impacted staff will be entitled to redundancy packages and will help workers find jobs outside of the company.

It is expected the outsourcing of ground handling operations will reduce costs by $100 million annually and avoid large spending on ground handling equipment.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Qantas has taken on an additional $1.5 billion in debt in order to keep the business afloat.

“While there has been some good news recently with domestic borders, international travel isn’t expected to return to pre-COVID levels until at least 2024,” Mr David said.

“We have a massive job ahead of us to repay debt and we know our competitors are aggressively cutting costs to emerge leaner.”

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) had submitted bids on behalf of ground handling staff for operations to stay with Qantas, however were unsuccessful and did not meet the airline’s requirements.

Qantas had made three separate extension for the TWU, but Mr David said the union failed to “outline sufficient practical detail”.

“Even with the involvement of a large accounting firm, the bid falls well short of what the specialist external providers were able to come up with,” he said.

The TWU said outsourced specialist ground handlers were unsafe and that the bid was a sham process.

It also claimed outsourcing would lower wages and working conditions, and Qantas was rorting the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

Qantas refutes these claims.

Business Reporter

Gerard Cockburn is a business reporter. Prior to joining The Australian, he has worked as a journalist for the Courier Mail and published in The Age.

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