A Fair Work Australia arbitration hearing involving Qantas and the Transport Workers Union has begun with union officials again accusing the carrier of turning its back on local workers.
TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said Qantas is driven by a “clear ideological agenda” – to outsource jobs.
“Since employees have been barred from taking industrial action by Fair Work Australia, hundreds more jobs have been outsourced and hundreds more will be lost as a result of incompetent management,” he said.
The carrier is determined to replace workers with Qantas skills, wages and conditions with “outsourced workers on substantially reduced wages and conditions”, he said.
Sheldon insisted union demands were neither excessive nor aggressive. “We have not made a claim on behalf of our members for a 71% wage increase like chief executive Alan Joyce did last year,” he continued. “We have not made any faulty claims for productivity increases like the board of management, which was responsible for the disastrous failed Asia strategy.”
The TWU believes the hearing will be a test case “on what Australian authorities deem acceptable behaviour from militant management”.
It is expected to run for several weeks.
