Mark Vaile says Qantas jobs could go offshore
As Transport Minister Mark Vaile admitted some jobs could go overseas if Qantas is sold to APA, with the Australian Manufacturers Workers’ Union (AMWU), the pilots union and engineers union all slamming the deed Peter Costello has accepted as the resolution to concerns that a takeover would result in loss of jobs and a reduction in regional routes.
The deed of undertaking has been signed by both the government and private equity consortium Airline Partners Australia (APA) and includes what are described as legally enforceable guarantees in relation to Qantas’ services in regional Australia, local jobs and foreign ownership of the airline.
The unions have rejected the deed as practically unenforceable and aviation analysts have said that with Qantas potentially a heavily debt laden airline, when bumps in the aviation road come along, the airline will not be able to ride them and the Government will be forced to give in on some conditions to keep Qantas flying.
Mr Vaile has also admitted that some of the unions’ fears may be well-founded despite the enforceable deed of agreement with APA which requires most of Qantas’ operational activities to remain in Australia, telling the Nine Network, “If Qantas requires some maintenance to be shifted offshore we’re not going to micro-manage this,: adding, “But the clear undertakings that have been made publicly by Airline Partners Australia have now been codified in this agreement, which is an enforceable agreement.”
“There is a critical requirement in here to maintain, as a percentage of the aggregate operation, a majority of the operational aspect of Qantas in Australia, whether that be maintenance, catering, flight operations, administration.”
Prime Minister John Howard said no company in Australia could guarantee forever the same workforce, no matter what industrial relations system was in force and no matter what government was in power.
“That is just unrealistic,” he said.
Aviation analysts ask the question, why have the undertaking at all if the Government is saying that it will be broken in any case, a view echoed by the Unions and casting even further doubt on the integrity of APA and the Government in the sale of Qantas.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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