Hippocampus - 29/10/2011 07:04 GMT
A very high stakes game being played:
http://m.theage.com.au/national/qantas-to-lock-out-employees-20111029-1mpar.html
Qantas will lock out all its employees covered by the agreements that are currently in dispute.
And it has grounded its entire domestic and international fleets indefinitely.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says the airline will lock out staff until the unions withdraw their extreme claim and reach agreeement with us.
The lock out will begin at 8pm AEDT on Monday.
Mr Joyce said his hand had been tipped by the impossible demands of the three unions.
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 07:49 GMT
It's good to see Joyce taking such a proactive stand, had Walsh had the guts to do the same thing at BA with the cabin crew the dispute would have been short lived and we would now have an integrated cabin crew structure rather than the ridiculous arrangement currently in place.
Bucksnet - 29/10/2011 08:17 GMT
According to Qantas, all their flights are already grounded: -
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/disruptions/global/en
Binman62 - 29/10/2011 08:21 GMT
A dreadful decision from a CEO who has shown a distinct lack of any ability to manage and sell his vision for the future to the staff. Many many thousands will be disrupted and without warning and with no ability to make alternative arrangements. The BBC described what he did as the nuclear option and one can only hope that in doing so the CEO is removed in order that a more enlightened approach to people can be taken. This is after all a profitable and successful carrier, there is no need for this but there is a need for multi million dollar CEO to take people with them and many many business around the world including those highly unionised, have been able to take their people with them through consultation discussion and putting people at the heart of what the do.
Shame on this CEO he really needs to go.
My thoughts are for the unfortunate staff at LHR and around the world today having to face the angry and disgruntled passengers affected by this decision.
Hippocampus - 29/10/2011 08:38 GMT
CXDiamond, I think the difference between this and the BA dispute is that the BA action was by one workgroup whereas Qantas is facing action by multiple workgroups. Also, UK industrial relations law seems to be quite different to Australia. In the UK, the law is very strict on the process for any industrial action (eg 7 days' notice must be given) so it's easier for management to plan and respond accordingly.
Whilst I have no time for union militancy (and fully support professional business focused representation of employees) from what I have seen of this dispute some of the language of Qantas management seems to have been ill considered (ie describing Qantas International as slowly dying) and little effort seems to have been made to sell the need for change to employees.
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 08:54 GMT
QF managers have been trying to take the workforce along for more than long enough. QF domestic is profitable, QF international is not and is slowly bankrupting the company.
When any group of employees be it a single part of the workforce or a number of parts can disrupt and ground an airline then it is time for firm and decisive action. Joyce has done the right thing. FWIW, I've met him, he's not the best of CEOs but he does have a vision for QF which gives them a great future. If I know that then I don't believe the workforce don't regardless of what they say. The job of managers is to manage after due consultation which has happened at QF.
Bucksnet - 29/10/2011 09:47 GMT
Qantas seems to be the opposite of most airlines, whose long haul operations are profitable, but short haul are unprofitable and largely act as feeder flights. However Australia is a large country and QF does face a lot of superior but lower cost Asian competition.
What has really irked Qantas workforce is Alan Joyce feathering his own nest whilst everyone else takes a hit. Similar to Walsh at BA, his salary his pay has soared whilst shareholders go without dividends and incur share value drops, the employees are seeing their jobs move abroad and packages cut.
Another fat cat caught in the ever increasing trough similar to the UK which has seen board packages increase by 50% in an economic downturn.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/joyces-pay-soars-as-costs-mount-20111028-1moay.html
The disputes with unions representing pilots, ground staff and engineers – over pay and costs cuts – have been ongoing for most of this year and have sparked a series of strikes since the summer.
Alan Joyce, chief executive, said the disputes had so far cost Qantas A$68m and that the strikes themselves were now costing the airline A$15m in lost sales every week – a situation he called “unsustainable”.
HonestCrew - 29/10/2011 13:16 GMT
I'm sure CXDiamond wouldn't be so forgiving if she was currently stranded in a terminal at one of the third world destinations Qantas serve.
Typical knee-jerk reaction of a Daily Mail reader sat at home with her feet up.
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 13:53 GMT
HonestCrew thank you for your comments. I'm actually in Hong Kong working, I don't read the Daily Mail and never have. Perhaps you're sat at home with your feet up enjoying the unrealistically generous terms and conditions of employment that allow time off that is not matched by any other UK employer.
Of course I'm sorry for the people caught in the situation caused by the Qantas trade unions but it is they who are to blame and no one else. Managers have to manage and employees need to realise that. Had I been in charge at Qantas I would have taken these steps weeks ago and at BA years ago.
HonestCrew - 29/10/2011 14:35 GMT
We need the time off to get away from pseudo-intellectual types who just because they know how to clear security without being asked to remove their belts, believe they know how to run an airline and somehow have knowledge of terms and conditions of EVERY company in the UK.
Now, where are my slippers?
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 14:44 GMT
Then if I were your passenger you'd be able to do with less time off as I have run an airline. It's no different to any other company really, you need to make a profit to survive and in order to do so you need to contain your costs, the principal one of which is labour while also being the most unreliable.
CXDiamond - it is essential in such a people centric business that one maintains morale and motivates people. Alan Joyce has behaved in an exceptionally crass way again which will only alienate his workforce.
He is coupling an unproved strategy with appalling execution. For too long shareholders and employees have paid substantially over the odds for substandard leadership promise as opposed to bottom line results.
Bucksnet - 29/10/2011 14:50 GMT
HonestCrew
Don't waste your time with CXD, anyone who thinks Britain is better off in the EU and has a great future is deluded.
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 15:05 GMT
Tête_de_cuvée as above, I'm well aware of how to run an airline and there's more to it than maintaining morale and motivation. Joyce has taken a sensible decision and the only one that was left to him by trade unions holding the company and its passengers to ransom. There is now a possibility for matters to be sorted out and I would be confident that it will happen.
As I said, Joyce is a perfectly adequate CEO, a cut above Walsh. Neither are the brightest buttons in the box but in relative terms their businesses are uncomplicated, there's no great mystique to running an airline.
I would suggest that for too long Qantas passengers have paid substantially over the odds for substandard services, a bit like those of an airline closer to home. Qantas has a great future if Joyce makes his changes, I'm not so sure about the other lot.
While many airlines are in vein finding ways to survive the future, the impact on the stranded passengers is NOW! Sad.
We can expect to see more of these in the years to come!
VintageKrug - 29/10/2011 16:01 GMT
This is a painful, but necessary, move on Joyce's part.
Morale is irrelevant in the short term. This is not some sort of "love-in", it's a business.
Without this decisive action, the unions would have continued to exercise a cancerous grip on the airline.
The employees will be locked out, sacked, and replaced/outsourced with employees on terms equivalent to their Asian counterparts. Alternatively, the Unions will negotiate and settle, saving some elements of their existing packages; the choice is stark, and Joyce holds all the cards.
That's what's needed for costs - and eventually fares - to become competitive once again; for too long the Australian traveller has been massively overcharged on domestic routes despite considerable competition for Virgin Australia, and it will be good to see a shake up in this industry.
Of course one has sympathy for those stranded, but a clear policy has been put in place to cover accommodation costs, and there are few routes which aren't served by other - more cost competitive - carriers; that is rather the point that Joyce is making.
There will be thousands of people only too happy to be employed by Qantas, even on new T&Cs, so I don't see the union having a very strong long term position.
It would have been possible for Walsh to make redundancies at BA; instead he chose the less dramatic route of a slow transition to Mixed Fleet.
That slow transition can always be speeded up. The redundancy option remains.
CXDiamond - 29/10/2011 16:16 GMT
Well said VintageKrug. I don't think people on the ground really understand the business they work in or the world they live in sometimes. In business the hard decisions must be made and carried through. If there is to be a future for industries that compete in a global market place then their costs must come in to line even when that is painful.
Walsh in my opinion was way too soft and lacked determination to achieve excellence in management. I hope Joyce has looked and learned from that and that he will do the right thing for Qantas, Australia and the travelling public of every nationality who use Qantas. There will be a little short term pain for travellers over this weekend but the gains will be worth it in the not too distant future.
I agree for every Qantas employee made redundant or dismissed there will be ten to take their place so no fears on that score. Employees need to remember that companies are not run for their benefit but for the benefit of the people they serve. In this world it's compete or die. Qantas is dying.
You have totally missed the point. By Joyce choosing to have one rule for himself by extensively feathering his own nest with significant pay / package increases in a time of global downturn he has unnecessarily alienated his workforce.
His decision to enrich himself before delivering results demonstrates his bad leadership, evocative of the Chrysler and GM execs flying down to Washington in separate private jets to ask for a government bail out.
The pilots et al are bright enough to understand the consequence of their actions, no-one likes to get peed on especially by their own CEO who has put himself beyond the necessary cost savings.
His shortsighted approach will certainly not endear him to Fair Work Australia who will now step in to resolve the issue, No doubt they will notice how many outsourced operations to Asia and the sub-continent are now being repatriated.
Saying Joyce holds all the cards is fatuous and demonstrates a total lack of knowledge of industrial relations within Australia. Best stick with things you appear to have experience of VK - BA sales, collecting miles, airport lounges and passing puerile opinion on how pneumatic the cabin crew are - as you appear clueless about business.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/qantas-suspends-flights-indefinitely-20111029-1mpb0.html
Bucksnet - 29/10/2011 16:56 GMT
The unions have too much of a grip on the airline and pay rates are too high, but surely it's illegal to fire all the workers and employ new ones in their place?
