Qantas moving offshore for cheap labour

QANTAS is planning to shift more jobs and services overseas as chief executive Geoff Dixon claims the national flag carrier can no longer afford to be an "all-Australian" business. In a blunt warning to staff and the Australian public, Mr Dixon told The Australian the airline had no choice but to source more of its people, services and products overseas in order to remain competitive.

"We can't sit here and be all-Australian," Mr Dixon said in foreshadowing renewed confrontation with unions over cost controls and job relocation. About 94 per cent of Qantas's 35,000 staff are Australian-based, a figure the airline claims is the highest of any global international carrier.

Based on international benchmarks, Mr Dixon's determination to improve competitiveness would result in more than 7000 jobs moving overseas. He said the airline industry was changing dramatically, with competing carriers Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific lowering costs by consistently sourcing about 30 per cent of products and services such as engineering and in-flight services from other countries.

Mr Dixon's comments come only two months after Qantas won a battle to save more than $18million a year in hotel bills and allowances by increasing the number of its London-based flight attendants from 370 to 870.

Eventually, as part of a three-year enterprise agreement, the Flight Attendants Association of Australia accepted the new 870 cap, which will result in 22 per cent of Qantas's long-haul flight attendants being based overseas. In response to Mr Dixon's latest comments, the FAAA international division secretary Michael Mijatov said Qantas was one of the world's most profitable airlines and he believed jobs should be kept in Australia.

"I'll be buggered, come the next three years, whether they're going to have any increased numbers," he said. "That's it as far as we're concerned. It has become stale and tired, this constant rhetoric about doom and gloom, while at the same time (Qantas executives) pad their pockets like there's no tomorrow."

"It doesn't mean we'll be any less Australian and it certainly doesn't mean mass redundancies or anything like that."

Full story, thanks to The Australian

MathewK

First off, will Geoff be relocating as well, packing up his family, staff and pets as well to save costs. If not that, the Geoff needs to hand over his fat portfolio over to someone overseas, if its good enough for Aussies to be 'let go' so that people in other countries can do the same job, why should Geoff be exempt from this cost saving measure. I suppose excuses like 'Oh the climate doesn't suit me, or it won't make any difference to the baseline', would be offered.

Next, see the lines in bold, how exactly Geoff ol chap, can you say "We can't sit here and be all-Australian", then fire 7000 'Australian' staff, then rehire 7000 people from countries other than 'Australia' and then say "It doesn't mean we'll be any less Australian". Will they be changing the fine print to 'Qantas, proudly 60% Australian'? Stay tuned for more from 'The world according to Geoff Dixon.'

I suppose its easy for us to just point the finger at Geoff and accuse him of sending Aussie jobs overseas, but then we the public are enjoying lower fares because of cut throat policies like this. Are we prepared to pay a little extra so that a few Australians can keep their jobs.

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