Qantas wins key union ruling

Qantas will be able to outsource ground handling work

Qantas has won a decision allowing it to outsource ground handling work.

Mediation body Fair Work Australia upheld the airline’s right to outsource work, in the face of opposition from the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) which wanted the number of outside workers capped at a fifth of permanent staff.

Qantas said the ruling would allow it to “run its business free from union control”, while a new contractual agreement “provides certainty for 3,800 baggage handlers, airport ground staff, catering, freight and other transport employees”.

“Qantas welcomes the decision by Fair Work Australia,” said Qantas’ Group Executive for Government & Corporate Affairs, Olivia Wirth. “It’s clear that the Transport Workers’ Union’s demands were out of step with what is fair and reasonable for a union to demand of an employer.

“Importantly, Qantas is free to run our business as we see fit and not be dictated to by union officials who do not have the airline’s best interests at heart,” she added.

As part of the settlement, workers will receive a 3% per year salary increase, which will be backdated to July 2011. The TWU had been campaigning for a 5% rise.

The decision by Fair Work Australia also prevents the TWU from taking industrial action for at least the next two years. The union, which represents around Australia-based 3,800 baggage handlers and ground staff, was at the centre of the 2011 industrial dispute which cost Qantas an estimated US$70 million and led to the grounding its entire fleet. The two months of strikes were largely in protest at Qantas’ assumed intention to offshore jobs.

The TWU issued a statement today paying tribute to the “Qantas workers who stood up for their jobs, their communities and fairness in Australia by taking on this militant employer”.