Qantas staff demand job protection
Qantas workers have announced that they want a legal agreement from Airline Partners Australia’s management to protect their jobs if the investment consortium takes control in a proposed $11 billion buyout of the airline.
Dozens of Qantas workers and representatives from the Transport Workers Union descended on Sunday on the Qantas arrivals terminal at Sydney Airport to protest against the buyout by APA going ahead without legal protection for the jobs of 30,000 Qantas employees.
APA, a consortium led by Macquarie Bank but involving low cost carrier financier Texas Pacific and David Bonderman has been in talks with the TWU but not surprisingly, only Qantas board members and management are ensured of job protection once the sale goes ahead, TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon said.
He added, “This is, obviously, the first step in a very important campaign – 30,000 families at the moment have been ransomed without any binding arrangement on the Australia Day weekend because the federal government has failed to act and the consortium and Qantas have failed to protect Australian families”.
“I think it’s quite clear, and that is, no Australian worker would put their futures into the hands of a consortium unless they have a binding arrangement.”
“The new management of Qantas have binding arrangements, the board of directors has binding arrangements but quite clearly the Australian public and 30,000 families don’t have a binding arrangement to protect them.”
“The TWU put its proposal to APA and Qantas senior management, which told the union it would consider supporting such an arrangement but was not prepared to enter into a binding arrangement.”
The union wants the Federal Government to force APA to guarantee Qantas jobs before it approves the sale and the government has required the consortium to provide guarantees on a range of issues but the TWU wants specific language in a legal agreement to protect jobs.
Qantas accepted the $11.1 billion, $5.60 per share takeover bid from the APA on December 14 last year and APA’s bidder’s statement will be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Stock Exchange by early February.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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