Qantas has been slammed for using “mongrel corporate gorillaship” when managing its workforce by a Labor senator and former senior figure at the Transport Workers Union (TWU), while CEO Alan Joyce was reportedly personally lobbying the prime minister behind closed doors.
NSW senator Tony Sheldon was among several Labor MPs attacking Joyce yesterday as the CEO reportedly met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about Joyce’s sweeping objections to the biggest workplace reforms since the ’70s (Qantas would not confirm the meeting).
Qantas has rejected the IR reforms that would, among other things, allow multi-employer bargaining and more straightforward strike action, with Joyce warning that he may need to slash domestic routes should the bill pass.
But an irate Sheldon hit back, accusing Joyce of launching a “war on the middle class” over his plans to move 1300 workers off enterprise agreements, with the senator arguing Joyce was just trying to drive down wages.
“I’ve met with mongrel corporate gorillas throughout my life; it doesn’t mean you have to agree with them — and in Qantas’s case you also don’t have to respect them,” Sheldon said.
And he wasn’t the only Labor figure reacting to Joyce walking the halls of Parliament. Former Labor leader and Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten said Joyce should not be put “in charge of the wages system of this country”.
It comes as the Senate report reviewing Labor’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation mentioned Qantas by name, noting the bonza year the national carrier is posting despite back-to-back crises including widespread luggage loss, long hold times, and flight cancellations.
(However, as of last month, Qantas is now the best-performing airline in the country, with three-quarters of flights taking off on time in October cancellations dwindled 2.22%, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics — though the overall industry average is 10% behind last year’s on-time performance.)
“Qantas’ assertion that it cannot afford to fairly bargain with its splintered workforce should be viewed in the context of its estimated $1.2 billion half-yearly profit, its recently announced $400 million share buyback, and its recently announced $4 million annual bonus for its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Alan Joyce, which suggests Qantas may have the financial capacity to end its deliberate wage suppression tactics,” the Senate committee noted pointedly.
Interestingly, the report continued, the national carrier should be seen as a sum of moving parts, not as fragmented entities all necessarily facing the same concerns about the bill as Australia’s small business community.
“This strategy of fragmenting a workforce across numerous employing entities to disenfranchise workers is taken to its most extreme at Qantas, which has split its frontline workforce across 38 different employing entities, including 17 Qantas-owned subsidiaries and 21 external labour hire or services contractors,” the committee said.
“The committee notes with disappointment the astroturfing that has taken place throughout the inquiry, with lobby groups representing big business consistently framing their opposition to provisions of the bill through baseless assertions about its purported impact on small business.”
It’s been a good week for Qantas. Its profit forecast soared to between $1.35 billion and $1.45 billion in underlying profit before tax in the first half of its financial year, up $150 million from October’s estimation.
Net debt is now expected to fall to an estimated $2.3 billion and $2.5 billion by new year’s eve, around $900 million more than previously predicted, the airline told the ASX.
Plus, Qantas shares have jumped as much as 6.1% to $6.23 — their highest level since the pre-pandemic time of February 24, 2020 — and were the second biggest gainer in the ASX 200 benchmark index.
There was more good news for Qantas after management was given the go-ahead to appeal two Federal Court findings that found it was illegal for the airline move to sack and outsource 2000 baggage handlers, ramp workers, and cabin cleaners during the pandemic.
At the time, Transport Workers Union (TWU) challenged the legality of the move and won a partial victory after the Federal Court ruled Qantas was at least partially motivated by dodging future industrial action.
On Friday, the High Court granted Qantas special leave to appeal the Federal Court findings — the airline welcomed the news.
“At its core, this case is about Qantas’ ability to legally outsource a function to save more than $100 million a year when it was struggling to remain solvent,” a statement read.
“We’ve always expressed our deep regret that our ground handlers, and thousands more across the group, had to lose their jobs as the pandemic hit us.”
Emma Elsworthy is Climate Editor at Crikey, SmartCompany, and The Mandarin, and writes daily morning newsletter the Worm. Before joining Crikey in 2021, Emma was a breaking news reporter in ABC’s Sydney newsroom, a journalist at BBC Australia, and a journalist in Fairfax Media’s regional network. She was part of a team awarded a Walkley for coverage of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis, and won the Australian Press Council prize in 2013.
