Is quality at the world’s safest airline about to go downhill? Probably.
From The Age:
Qantas has confirmed it will retrench another 2000 workers and outsource all ground handling work at major Australian airports after rejecting a bid by employees to save their jobs.
The redundancies will be completed early next year and bring the number of workers Qantas has laid-off since the start of the COVID-19 crisis to around 8500, or close to a third of its pre-pandemic workforce.
Qantas announced a review of its ground operations in August, looking to save up to $100 million by shifting baggage handling, aircraft cleaning and ground support work to third-party providers at 11 major airports.
The affected workers were able to “bid” to keep the work by outlining how they could do it more cheaply than a third party but Qantas said on Monday it had not accepted the proposal put forward by the Transport Workers Union.
The national airline is in a slow death spiral with this latest round of worker cuts.
It’s high time to nationalise Qantas so we can revitalise the internal tourism industry and ensure the high quality workforce remains intact before its too late, as the fallout from COVID-19 will still likely devastate global air travel for at least 12 months or more. It’s time for the Federal government to step in and save The Flying Kangaroo – the one off cost will more than offset the costs of bailing it out next year or when the next pandemic arrives at our shores.