Qantas are about to "liberate" 5000 employees. Can someone tell me what these workers were doing for the past few years? Assuming they were doing something, which services will the "restructured" Qantas now be without? Will their labour be replaced with robots? Will it be outsourced to contractors? Will check-in be self service like the checkouts at some supermarkets?
kandagal said
10:25 AM Mar 1, 2014
We are booked on a Qantas flight LA to Brisbane in June & as soon as Qantas was on the news re staff cuts & losses etc we received an email from Qantas telling us not to worry we would still be well looked after. I suppose email was computer generated & went out to all future pax Cheers Alice
KFT said
10:46 AM Mar 1, 2014
very good question Dorian
my thoughts
Qantas appears to be downsizing in favour of Jetstar
how is it that a board of directors such as Qantas has no growth strategy?
Why have they allowed the situation to get to this stage?
If the government opens Qantas up to foreign investment will we see a takeover by other airlines intent on buying out and winding up their competition?
I really do not know what this country is coming to. we wont own any of it if they keep going.
frank
Yuglamron said
11:26 AM Mar 1, 2014
I have always held the belief that the present CEO of Qantas's real brief was to destroy the airline to make it available to a foreign buy out. Run the company down until it needs such a major restructuring that it will be able to be restructured to make it a lean company selling off it's older planes and be a prime target for a takeover.
Can someone tell me how selling their lease at Brisbane airport raises money. They state they will still use the same terminal and the same parts as they use now.(Will that be free?)
If a company is trading at a loss isn't it encumbent on management to structure the company so it makes money not losses. Not decimate the major asset they have. The workforce.
Ziggy Buggered Telstra, same thing decimated the workforce and then got a huge Golden Handshake, shares were half the price from when he took over and then left. Is it going to be the same with this CEO. Run the company down and then leave with a huge golden handshake.
Any sane person knew that with a high dollar and high fuel costs it would be a hard year so where was the pricing structure to keep things on an even keel.
Just how much of the money Qantas should have has been diverted to Jetstar and the Asian side of business, Guess we will never see that figure.
Big Gorilla said
12:16 PM Mar 1, 2014
Before Qantas was privatised and purchased TAA from the Government, I worked with TAA. As a Govt. controlled airline, the waste I saw there was unbelievable. A lot of the waste was overstaffing apart from other things. Ansett had the same problem but as a public company, initially privately owned by Sir Reginald Ansett, it couldn't sustain the losses. It was eventually sold to Sir Peter Ables (TNT) and Rupert Murdoch. They couldn't break the Union's hold and sold out to Air New Zealand. ANZ had the same problem, and almost faced Bankruptcy itself propping up Ansett. To save itself, it let Ansett go down the schute...ANZ was previously sold by the New Zealand Govt., and the Govt. had to buy back 86% to save the airline from following in Ansett's shoes.
Now I'm not against Unions, and I sincerely sympathize with people who lose their jobs. However Qantas has no choice. 1500 people will go from Management. Salaries have been frozen, the CEO has taken a 36% pay cut. Most of the employees will go thru attrition and redundancies. Now there are numerous reasons why Qantas is in trouble. I don't want to write a book so I'm confining my comments here to people employed. I don't believe the Management and CEO are completely at fault although there are one or two areas they need to explain including why they increase capacity to maintain a 65%share of the domestic market ! I know for a fact Virgin are giving Qantas a big fright...
The Engineering staff are the most vocal and threatening. They realize, as do Management, that today's generation of aircraft do not require the maintenance and servicing as the old beasts such as the Boeing 767, 747 of which Qantas have a few and are getting rid of. This means fewer Engineers will be required. Yes some heavy maintenance will be done overseas but Qantas couldn't afford to put in new heavy maintenance facilities to service a small number of aircraft in Australia..
If the Unions, go on strike, which has been mentioned, Qantas will be f&%#ed. Let's hope common sense prevails. As I mentioned, Qantas's woes are many, so let's hope a solution can be found to save this Australian icon.
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Saturday 1st of March 2014 01:57:52 PM
The Phantom said
03:40 PM Mar 1, 2014
I have a bit of a problem with politicians and others claiming Qantas to be an "Australian Icon" and using that as an excuse to throw taxpayers money at them.
RM Williams (now owned by Louis Vuitton) and Arnott's (owned by US's Campbell Soup) were two Aussie icons that have disappeared, along with many others.
The Federal Government sold Qantas and is no longer an owner. They have no further responsibility via the taxpayer.
If they remove the 51% Australian owned legislation and the company becomes foreign owned, so what? Fares will probably remain low and service will improve (it certainly couldn't get worse). Whomever owns Qantas will probably keep the name due to the safety record being a selling point.
It is pointless propping a basket case with taxpayers money. Haven't we discovered that with Ford, Holden and Toyota.
The Phantom
Cloak said
06:31 PM Mar 1, 2014
The Unions have met with the Qantas team and told the media they have no idea yet who and from where will be liberated.
The story I read in the Fin Review or was it The Age... gave a strong message Qantas is reading from an Excel spreadsheet
at the moment looking at overall numbers.
Clearly this is posturing to sell a huge chunk.
The Liberated folks can maybe spend time at the beach with Ford, Holden, Toyota, Telstra and Target folks.
No good looking for Mining jobs either as Aussies are getting their marching orders as foreign workers are flooding in.
NeilandRaine said
06:40 PM Mar 1, 2014
Wasn't Alan Joyce in charge of Ansett when it bit the dust. and surprise surprise went the same way as Quantas
Cloak said
06:43 PM Mar 1, 2014
He was at Ansett but not in charge I recall.
Big Gorilla said
07:30 PM Mar 1, 2014
He was only a s#@t kicker a Ansett:
Joyce worked at Aer Lingus, the flag carrier of Ireland for eight years, where he held a wide spectrum of positions in Sales, Marketing, Information Technology, Network Planning, Operations Research, Revenue Management and Fleet Planning.[3] In 1996 he left Aer Lingus to join the now-defunct Ansett Australia.[4]
Then in 2000 he joined Qantas.[5] At both Ansett Australia and Qantas, Joyce headed the Network Planning, Schedules Planning and Network Strategy functions.[3]
Jeff Kennett made some very solid points about the trashy interviews and journalism that get in the road of the public understanding issues in the news.
It is not that any of this is beyond the public, but the talk show hosts and arguably print media journos too are such lightweights who don't research the issues themselves are 'personalities' (they are the news) and they trivialise issues into adversarial bun fights.
Not saying that Kennett is right or wrong but the stuff put out by the media is rubbish.
Baz421 said
09:23 PM Mar 1, 2014
Both my daughters previously worked for Qantas and the stories they told would amaze you. The "jobs for life" syndrome was still there as was get what you can from the system no matter the cost.
Also the rorts after "normal" peak hours were astounding it seems. Don't knwo if much has chaged lately.
Bryan said
10:17 PM Mar 1, 2014
Thought provoking Dorian.
peterblack said
07:39 AM Mar 2, 2014
I think that the present CEO of Qantas's real brief was to destroy the airline to make it available to a foreign buy out
his record is there for all to see
he is irish just look at the state of Ireland
enjoy
Landfall said
08:23 AM Mar 2, 2014
Big gorilla, you got it in one.
The level of service won't diminish, I suspect it will improve. The more competent people will actually start to perform and hopefully, they will get rid of the dead wood.
Like a lot of other union strongholds, the labour force know they are protected and "the job for life" mentality is there for all to see.
Qantas needs someone in charge with the balls to take the union/s on. A. Joyce is that man.
As for foreign ownership? The governement should have a stake of 51% in both an airline and a shipping company.
We are an island nation, if we ever become involved in a major homeland conflict, we need to be able to guarantee supply of material and troops. A little bit awkward if the people you are in conflict with have a majority share in your transport system?
Qantas are about to "liberate" 5000 employees. Can someone tell me what these workers were doing for the past few years? Assuming they were doing something, which services will the "restructured" Qantas now be without? Will their labour be replaced with robots? Will it be outsourced to contractors? Will check-in be self service like the checkouts at some supermarkets?
my thoughts
Qantas appears to be downsizing in favour of Jetstar
how is it that a board of directors such as Qantas has no growth strategy?
Why have they allowed the situation to get to this stage?
If the government opens Qantas up to foreign investment will we see a takeover by other airlines intent on buying out and winding up their competition?
I really do not know what this country is coming to. we wont own any of it if they keep going.
frank
I have always held the belief that the present CEO of Qantas's real brief was to destroy the airline to make it available to a foreign buy out. Run the company down until it needs such a major restructuring that it will be able to be restructured to make it a lean company selling off it's older planes and be a prime target for a takeover.
Can someone tell me how selling their lease at Brisbane airport raises money. They state they will still use the same terminal and the same parts as they use now.(Will that be free?)
If a company is trading at a loss isn't it encumbent on management to structure the company so it makes money not losses. Not decimate the major asset they have. The workforce.
Ziggy Buggered Telstra, same thing decimated the workforce and then got a huge Golden Handshake, shares were half the price from when he took over and then left. Is it going to be the same with this CEO. Run the company down and then leave with a huge golden handshake.
Any sane person knew that with a high dollar and high fuel costs it would be a hard year so where was the pricing structure to keep things on an even keel.
Just how much of the money Qantas should have has been diverted to Jetstar and the Asian side of business, Guess we will never see that figure.
Before Qantas was privatised and purchased TAA from the Government, I worked with TAA. As a Govt. controlled airline, the waste I saw there was unbelievable. A lot of the waste was overstaffing apart from other things. Ansett had the same problem but as a public company, initially privately owned by Sir Reginald Ansett, it couldn't sustain the losses. It was eventually sold to Sir Peter Ables (TNT) and Rupert Murdoch. They couldn't break the Union's hold and sold out to Air New Zealand. ANZ had the same problem, and almost faced Bankruptcy itself propping up Ansett. To save itself, it let Ansett go down the schute...ANZ was previously sold by the New Zealand Govt., and the Govt. had to buy back 86% to save the airline from following in Ansett's shoes.
Now I'm not against Unions, and I sincerely sympathize with people who lose their jobs. However Qantas has no choice. 1500 people will go from Management. Salaries have been frozen, the CEO has taken a 36% pay cut. Most of the employees will go thru attrition and redundancies. Now there are numerous reasons why Qantas is in trouble. I don't want to write a book so I'm confining my comments here to people employed. I don't believe the Management and CEO are completely at fault although there are one or two areas they need to explain including why they increase capacity to maintain a 65%share of the domestic market ! I know for a fact Virgin are giving Qantas a big fright...
The Engineering staff are the most vocal and threatening. They realize, as do Management, that today's generation of aircraft do not require the maintenance and servicing as the old beasts such as the Boeing 767, 747 of which Qantas have a few and are getting rid of. This means fewer Engineers will be required. Yes some heavy maintenance will be done overseas but Qantas couldn't afford to put in new heavy maintenance facilities to service a small number of aircraft in Australia..
If the Unions, go on strike, which has been mentioned, Qantas will be f&%#ed. Let's hope common sense prevails. As I mentioned, Qantas's woes are many, so let's hope a solution can be found to save this Australian icon.
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Saturday 1st of March 2014 01:57:52 PM
I have a bit of a problem with politicians and others claiming Qantas to be an "Australian Icon" and using that as an excuse to throw taxpayers money at them.
RM Williams (now owned by Louis Vuitton) and Arnott's (owned by US's Campbell Soup) were two Aussie icons that have disappeared, along with many others.
The Federal Government sold Qantas and is no longer an owner. They have no further responsibility via the taxpayer.
If they remove the 51% Australian owned legislation and the company becomes foreign owned, so what? Fares will probably remain low and service will improve (it certainly couldn't get worse). Whomever owns Qantas will probably keep the name due to the safety record being a selling point.
It is pointless propping a basket case with taxpayers money. Haven't we discovered that with Ford, Holden and Toyota.
The Phantom
The story I read in the Fin Review or was it The Age... gave a strong message Qantas is reading from an Excel spreadsheet
at the moment looking at overall numbers.
Clearly this is posturing to sell a huge chunk.
The Liberated folks can maybe spend time at the beach with Ford, Holden, Toyota, Telstra and Target folks.
No good looking for Mining jobs either as Aussies are getting their marching orders as foreign workers are flooding in.
He was only a s#@t kicker a Ansett:
Joyce worked at Aer Lingus, the flag carrier of Ireland for eight years, where he held a wide spectrum of positions in Sales, Marketing, Information Technology, Network Planning, Operations Research, Revenue Management and Fleet Planning.[3] In 1996 he left Aer Lingus to join the now-defunct Ansett Australia.[4]
Then in 2000 he joined Qantas.[5] At both Ansett Australia and Qantas, Joyce headed the Network Planning, Schedules Planning and Network Strategy functions.[3]
Joyce was appointed CEO of Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways in October 2003.[3][6]
Joyce became CEO of Qantas on 28 November 2008. He is a former Director of Orangestar Investment Holdings Pte Limited (holding company of Singapore-based Jetstar Asia Airways andValuair) and Jetstar Pacific Airlines Aviation Joint Stock Company (in Vietnam)
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Saturday 1st of March 2014 07:31:01 PM
Did anyone see this interview, Jeff Kennett on Sunrise?
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/21742398/sam-blamed-for-qantas-cuts/
Jeff Kennett made some very solid points about the trashy interviews and journalism that get in the road of the public understanding issues in the news.
It is not that any of this is beyond the public, but the talk show hosts and arguably print media journos too are such lightweights who don't research the issues themselves are 'personalities' (they are the news) and they trivialise issues into adversarial bun fights.
Not saying that Kennett is right or wrong but the stuff put out by the media is rubbish.
Both my daughters previously worked for Qantas and the stories they told would amaze you. The "jobs for life" syndrome was still there as was get what you can from the system no matter the cost.
Also the rorts after "normal" peak hours were astounding it seems. Don't knwo if much has chaged lately.
his record is there for all to see
he is irish just look at the state of Ireland
enjoy
Big gorilla, you got it in one.
The level of service won't diminish, I suspect it will improve. The more competent people will actually start to perform and hopefully, they will get rid of the dead wood.
Like a lot of other union strongholds, the labour force know they are protected and "the job for life" mentality is there for all to see.
Qantas needs someone in charge with the balls to take the union/s on. A. Joyce is that man.
As for foreign ownership? The governement should have a stake of 51% in both an airline and a shipping company.
We are an island nation, if we ever become involved in a major homeland conflict, we need to be able to guarantee supply of material and troops. A little bit awkward if the people you are in conflict with have a majority share in your transport system?
Ken