[Tete_de_cuvee]

It appears Joyce has an even cushier life than Willie Walsh – earning twice as much whilst living in a relatively lower cost area.

Alan Joyce received a 71% increase to his package taking him to AUD 5.1 million (GBP 3.4 million) No doubt WW will try to leverage this to get even more from the trough himself.

http://www.terminalu.com/travel-news/qantas-boss-alan-joyce-receives-obscene-5-1m-annual-salary/15449/

Getting such an obscene increase whilst asking employees to take cuts, shareholders losing value with zero dividend plus share price down from $5 to $1.5 and Joyce still promising rather than delivering.

Arrogant, bad leadership, crass in the extreme.

A good leader leads from the front, takes the pain with his team and only accepts the reward and accolades when successful.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/qantas-troubles-come-to-a-head-at-agm-20111028-1mmrp.html

VK – adjectives & nouns within a sentence should not have a capital – use correct grammar yourself before correcting others.

[Binman62]

Amazing, Trade Unions organise legal disputes providing weeks of notice for passengers and airlines to make alternative plans and they are roundly critiisised for doing so. They inconvenience passengers, they destroy credibility and they will bring an airline to its knees. So went the mantra for 18 months duing the BA crew dispute.
Now a diminutive megalomaniac CEO ( what is it about short people and their egos) grounds an airline, without warning, causing disruption to tens of thousands, in the middle of a commonwealth summit and on the eve of season changeover; triggering a crisis so serious, that even the countries prime minister is fuming and yet….somehow it remains the fault of he working man and their legal representatives.
The double standard is breathtaking yet sadly typical of those who represent the unacceptable face of capitalism.

[austline]

Well said VK, John P and CX Diamond could not agree more.

Everyone forgets that Joyce took a 30% and 20% hair cut in his rem package in FY 2009 and2010 his new rem package restores it and is heavily incentivised.

Yes he is not the perfect CEO but is probably the only person tough enough, along with Clifford, to take this action.

It is tough and one can’t help but feel sorry for the people stranded. But I completely support this action; if QF International doesn’t change there will no QF Intl flights.

The Asian services are losing money, the UK JV with BA barely breaks even and the US is just holding its own.

The competition is so screwed that QF has to take drastic action.

EK has a combined 105 departures every week to DXB and AKL/CHC from various Australian Cities. How the Australian government ever allowed this to happen is beyond belief I certainly believe in an open market but this is stupid, look at the Canadian government they certainly look after AC in any bilateral air negotiations.

[rferguson]

BUT this is a dispute where the public perception of your average Australian is crucial. QF and the unions are both taking out massive PR campaigns to get the public onside.

Whatever the reasoning for AJ taking a massive hike it was shockingly I’ll timed.

My parents who moved to oz when they retired some years ago were very neutral in this dispute until AJ gave himself a pay rise while at the same time attempting to shift jobs from Australia to asia. They were appalled that AJ gave himself suck a pay rise at such a time. And I believe they pretty much represent the views of ‘average joe’ Australia.

Not a good move by AJ IMHO.

[VintageKrug]

Though Unions like to personalise such disputes, ultimately these disputes aren’t about individuals but the longer term common good of the company in question.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Qantas will cease to exist if it doesn’t address the issue of high costs.

Though the timing of AJ’s increase is unfortunate, one should remember (just like another CEO) AJ took a pay cut a few years ago, so this re-instates his remuneration, and is justified given he will have to work extremely hard over the coming months, and is likely to deliver a step change in costs and productivity as a consequence of the tough decisions he is taking now, not to mention the inevitable personal vilification by Unionistas.

Perversely, the more Unions personalise disputes, the more one can justify increased remuneration for those on the receiving end of Union bully-boy tactics.

Public perception is fickle, and very people have the nouse to understand the complex issues at play here. Similarly, in five years time when they board a QantasWorld jet, or whatever the new airline might be named, paying a fare which competes effectively with the Middle Eastern and Asian carriers, with on board service standards to match and with lower yet still profitable domestic fares they really won’t remember anything about the tough choices which made all that possible.

Qantas is being very accommodating with its re-booking policy, with many competing airlines able to take up the slack, so the numbers of people stranded for more than one day as a consequence of this should be minimised.

Some pain now, for a huge potential gain in the future, and an airline not at the mercy of constant uncertainty wrought by an outdated and masochistic Union.

Might even push Gillard over the edge, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, either. She sounds like one of the leads from Kath & Kim.

[rferguson]

Wow VK watches Kathy and Kim. The image I had of you, reclined in an old armchair in the cigar room of a gentlemans club is shattered. Hehe 🙂

[CXDiamond]

rferguson Without knowing all the ins and outs of what has and is going on at Qantas it’s impossible to say whether Joyce was right to deal with his remuneration package at the time and in the way he did. He had board approval for it though and presumably has for the steps he has taken.

My understanding is that he also has the support of the majority of Australians who are heartily sick of the behaviour of Qantas employees and the disruption they are causing. An Australian colleague tells me that his company considers Qantas to be a national embarrassment. That company is of significant size and spends significant money with Qantas but I understand that as of year end it will no longer, it will not take many companies of that size to shake Qantas to the core. No one would relish the job of CEO of such a company and they must sort it out. He may wish he had never taken the job.

Please remember that as a CEO you are often damned if you do and damned if you don’t. All you can do is your best for the company as you see it with the support of the board. If Joyce did not have the support of the board at Qantas he could not have done what he has but I haven’t heard a word of condemnation rising from that quarter. Remember also that if he fails it will mark the end of his career so I doubt he is being foolhardy in his actions.

[LuganoPirate]

What QF is facing is what many companies will soon face in the west. That of emerging economies with high youth unemployment that want to work hard and are happy to work hard. 6 day weeks, 10 hour days and two weeks holiday. No sick pay, no time off for personal reasons etc.

Unions are desperate in their attempts to stop us going back to what they perceive as 18th century work conditions, but right or wrong, and I make no judgement here, those countries, economies, and labour are willing to do whatever they have to to compete with western companies and gain the rewards.

So while we in the west want to work less and earn more, there are plenty of others willing and able to do the exact opposite. In order to remain competitive and avoid becoming another Greece we have to change our outlook and ideas. We face difficult choices in the west and hard decisions will have to be taken that will impact on us all, but that is the price of competition and the desire for ever cheaper air fares, hotels and so on!

[Hippocampus]

The remuneratiion of CEOs often reflects the fact that their tenure is likely to be relatively short (4-5 years) and not a job for life and they ultimately have to take responsibility for everything that happens in the company (whether they knew about it or not).

Perhaps when Alan “bad cop” Joyce has got this over with and finished the heavy lifting on behalf of the rest of the company, he will move on to another role, and a “good cop” CEO can come in and heal the wounds.

Sounds very familiar doesn’t it?

[Henkel.Trocken]

I have just returned from Sydney this morning, fortunately booked on SIA. Needless to say both sectors (A380) were full in all classes with about 10% of the seats taken by people who had planned to fly Qantas. There was a very short delay leaving SYD as two extra passengers were accomodated after people who checked in failed to board. In a deviation from the usual scripted announcements this was explained and the people who were Qantas passengers were extended a special welcome. I was in F and over the journey chatted to four other passengers who had planned to fly Qantas.

While I understand the SIA had accepted tickets in C & Y seats in F were sold at full fare – very SIA. Two of the passengers flying to Singapore had never flown with any airline but Qantas before and were amazed by the experience and F on the A380, one was sure he would choose SIA in future. There were similar reactions between SIN-LHR. Service was OK but I’ve had better on SIA and I thought the food was poor but the refugees were more than pleased.

All that said, I asked each of them whether they thought the stance adopted by Joyce was reasonable or not. The resounding message from these people who had been inconvenienced was yes, the did support him. They are heartily sick of union controlled Qantas and people who cannot see the global picture. Realistically Qantas has to compete with carriers from South East Asia and while their operating costs have more matched those of a European or north American airline, they see those days are over and it’s compete or die.

[LuganoPirate]

Or, there is another way. Protectionist policies on trade and imports and going back to the days when the fares were fixed by IATA, you could mix and match airlines building a multi city intinery based on the furthest point for the same fare and fly 20% more miles for a fare increase of 5%!

Some of that sounds attractive but overall I don’t think very many of us want to go back to those days do we?

[VintageKrug]

I would imagine that AJ will leave Qantas once this has been resolved; as others state, the high remuneration is directly related to increased profitability, and bonuses will be linked to success in dealing with the Union threat.

The Union may be able to claim this as a “coup” but of course it will all have been part of the larger plan, and be a Phyrric victory for the dinosaurs. Few of them will even know what that is.

It’s interesting that support amongst even the refugee F pax (who are likely to have abetter understanding than most of the issues at stake) is firmly behind the Board’s action.

Though the left leaning media here in SYD is behind the employees, the word on the street is broadly supportive of addressing the structural issues within Qantas; no one wants to see the airline fail.

A poll in the SMH gives a 40% approval rating for AJ’s action; that’s impressive considering everything. Still higher than BASSA’s support during BA’s recent dispute.

Gillard is floundering as ever.

[Binman62]

The last post is utter nonsense. The level of public support in Australia for is action is so low it cold not be found using an electron microscope. Just tune into any radion station or abc and your will see that the comments are almost universally negative.
As for the idea that just because someone is able and willing to fly First it does not give them any greater insight to issues that anyone else.
Any leader leads only when he can take his men with him and what AJ has done is create a far bigger crisis than already existed and has caused reputational damage far and away bigger than anything the the limited action to date had done.
Remember no warning, no notice and people disrupted whilst taxing for takeoff. It was insane and demonstrates that the management had no othe plan to deal with this.

It is incredible that whilst working people the world over are no longer allowed to see the jobs and prospects protected the CEO and board members of companies are allowed to award themselves outrageous pay rises and have pensions the most people would consider a lottery win.
It is greed and nothing but greed and I can see why more and more people are becoming sick of it.

[VintageKrug]

You are, factually, incorrect.

Here is the poll to which I refer; a figure of 41% supporting this action is in my view impressive given the obvious inconvenience this decision has caused. No microscope, electron or otherwise, needed:

http://www.smh.com.au/polls/travel/travel-news/qantas-lockout-20111029-1mpr0.html

It suggests the flying public are fed up of the high prices charged domestically, and are fed up of the uncertainty the Unions have already caused; over A$68million in lost revenues and hundreds of cancelled flights well before this latest escalation.

The overwhelming support of shareholders means the Board has the mandate to take on the Unions, and they have the balls to resolve these labour issues once and for all.

[Hippocampus]

Fair Work Australia has ruled that both the industrial action by the unions and the grounding of aircraft by Qantas should be terminated.

[Author]

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