[Matthew Chisholm]

We won't hire any more airport workers: Qantas


30 May 2012 5:07pm

A senior Qantas manager has told a FWA full bench during the arbitration of its dispute with the TWU that culminated in last year's lockout and fleet grounding that the airline will not in future directly hire any more workers in its airports division.

The union's secretary, Tony Sheldon, has seized on the comment to support his claim that Qantas's long-term goal is to shift its entire direct workforce to labour hire firms, either those it owns or separate companies, and contractors.

He also said today that if the tribunal handed down a decision that allowed Qantas to pursue its outsourcing strategy, then the Federal Government needed to amend the Fair Work Act.

Qantas's executive manager of ground operations, Matthew Lee, during cross examination (see from PN5412) earlier this month, agreed that he made up his mind ahead of last year's negotiations for a new ground employees agreement that all future workers engaged in airports would be an employee of its ground-services subsidiary, Qantas Ground Services (QGS) (see Related Article).

When asked by TWU barrister Adam Hatcher SC whether it followed that, at least as far as the airports division was concerned, there would in future not be any new person employed by Qantas, he said: "Yes, that's correct."

He agreed it wasn't a negotiating item, but a decision that Qantas made before bargaining began then announced to the union in the course of their meetings.

"It was something that you decided to do as a matter of business strategy?" Hatcher asked.

"Correct," he responded.

Lee gave evidence that Qantas currently had 1662 direct employees in airports.

The parties are in the 11th day of their 14-day arbitration - before Vice President Graeme Watson, Senior Deputy President Anne Harrison and Commissioner Greg Harrison - of last year's dispute over a new deal for ramp workers, baggage handlers, cleaners and catering workers.

The key argument the TWU has put to the bench is that a workplace determination that didn't include site rates would over time cover only a "dwindling legacy workforce", and Sheldon today said the comments by Matthew Lee supported its case (see Related Article).

However, Qantas has told the full bench that it shouldn't do directly what it couldn't do indirectly, which was to spread Qantas rates to QGS, which was not part of last year's dispute and outside the jurisdiction of the workplace determination.

Harry Dixon SC, representing the airline, told FWA when the case began in March that it was a clear premise of Qantas's agreement with the TWU on QGS that the subsidiary's workers would be paid a lower hourly rate to constrain the airline from outsourcing.

Qantas established QGS - which has an enterprise agreement with the TWU - in 2009 in settlement of a dispute between the parties over outsourcing of the baggage room in Perth.

Hatcher said in his opening submission that it was set up to cover labour hire employees and provide an alternative to third party arrangements and that the airline's plan to use it to undermine direct employment breached undertakings given in writing at the time.

The Fair Work Ombudsman on Monday begun prosecuting two Qantas entities and Jetstar for allegedly paying foreign-based cabin crew working in Australian territory only half of their minimum entitlements (see Related Article).

Source: Workplace Express