Dear Dr Wilson
Now that Qantas has resumed normal operations I would like to
update you on what the recent decision by Fair Work Australia
means for you.
I apologise sincerely for any inconvenience that you or your
family experienced during the grounding of the Qantas fleet
between Saturday evening and Monday afternoon.
The decision to lock out some of our employees was an immensely
difficult one and one that I did not want to have to make. But
it was a decision that we were driven to by the industrial
action of three unions, together representing less than 20
percent of Qantas employees.
As of last Friday, industrial action by those unions had forced
the cancellation of hundreds of flights, disrupted 70,000
passengers and cost Qantas $68 million. Two union leaders had
warned that industrial action could continue into next year.
This would have had a devastating effect on our customers, on
all Qantas employees and on the businesses which depend on
Qantas services.
On Saturday, I came to the conclusion that this crisis had to
end. I made the decision to proceed with a lock-out, the only
form of protected industrial action available to Qantas under
the Fair Work Act, so that agreement could be reached quickly.
Unfortunately, it was necessary as a precautionary measure to
ground the fleet immediately after the announcement that
a lock-out would take place. While I deeply regret the
short-term impact of the fleet being grounded, following the
Fair Work Australia decision we now have absolute certainty
for our customers. No further industrial action can take place.
No more aircraft will be grounded and no services cancelled as
a result of industrial action.
You can now book Qantas flights with complete confidence. This
is an immeasurably better situation than last Friday, when
Qantas faced the prospect of ongoing disruptions, perhaps for
another 12 months.
We have now moved into 21 days of negotiations with each of
the unions with the assistance of Fair Work Australia. All
parties will be treated equally in order to reach reasonable
agreements. If this cannot happen, binding arbitration will take
place to secure an outcome. We will respect whatever decisions
are reached.
Regardless of how and when the agreements are reached, the
period of uncertainty and instability for Qantas is over. We
are moving forward and putting this dispute behind us.
Our focus now is on our customers. We want to restore your faith
by returning our on-time performance to its normal high levels,
continuing to invest in new aircraft and lounges and ensuring
the best possible in-flight experience.
The end of industrial action means we can concentrate on what
matters – getting you to your destination on time and in comfort,
offering the best network and frequency of any Australian airline
and rewarding your loyalty as a Qantas Frequent Flyer.
Thank you for your patience and for your continued support
of Qantas.
Alan Joyce
CEO Qantas Airways
by Adam Tinworth via flickr
Related articles
- Hey sheep, Joyce is just a scapegoat (thepunch.com.au)
- Gillard slams Qantas over grounding (news.theage.com.au)
- Qantas bookings to improve, analysts say (news.theage.com.au)
- Qantas CEO welcomes government intervention (abtn.co.uk)
No Place For Sheep 
He’s a lying pillock.
No one forced him to shut down Qantas. He did it himself, regardless of any harm that might be done to others. Because the working people of Qantas got sick of his bullying and resisted his attempts to destroy their lives and livelihoods, he went sneakily behind people’s backs to shut down Qantas and then hope that the spinners could then blame the workers, in the mind of the public.
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i dont know why we need a foreign idiot to stuff up quantas. Get rid of him . I will not fly quantas anymore untill he is gone .
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I’m with him. He’s not lying, & he’s actually got a record.
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Deleting bits of that.
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Paul is right, the unions were not doing anything at all.
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I think Joyce’s actions were very OTT and it’s a pretty scary precedent for industrial relations. I wonder if Qantas is going to look after the 80,000 people who are out of pocket because he shut down the airline? And I wonder how many people like me are walking away from Qantas? This email went out to frequent flyers. and I guess it’s the beginning of a big PR campaign.
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Joyce didn’t have a lot of choice. The alternative was most unpalatble for the company.
The people (the flying public) WERE walking away from Qantas, hence he had to act to stop the slow-baking of the company by its own staff.
Apologies for the bit you had to delete Jennifer. I should not get down onto the gutter level with those who reside there.
Marilyn is having herself on. The unions were killing off the company. The Fair Work Act allowed them to do it. Without a thought for the future of their jobs, they set about punishing their own employer for giving them a well paid job. The union action is rather incomprehensible when you distill it down to that.
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So pissing of close to 100,000 people because their travel plans were cancelled (sometimes in mid-flight or seconds before the plane was going to take off) is going to get people to warmly embrace Qantas?
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G’day Steve š
Will you still feel the same way about the Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Service when all the planes and the brand (in whatever form it takes) end up based in, and flying out of, Malaysia or Thailand or Vietnam?
That’s where Mr. Joyce is taking The Flying Kangaroo, and with it will go 90 years of a (mostly) enviable history, the jobs of Australian pilots and cabin crews, ground crews, baggage handlers, engineers and maintenance staff.
Mr. Joyce has plenty of options, but the agenda is what he is pursuing, and he’s playing a damn good game of chess at the moment. When QANTAS is gone, he’ll be $7million dollars the richer (mark my words, he’s not at the end of his reign or his rises yet) and Australians will no longer have their own airline, nor perhaps a shadow of one.
The actions of the unions involved are quite commendable and understandable given that they see this too. As far as Mr. Joyce is concerned, history has spoken for him (his past career, you should look it up; makes compelling reading); if it looks like manure, smells like manure and has a nice sign around its neck saying the same, then I guess the Horse’s Airse might just be on to something…
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G’day Tiga,
I don’t see how Qantas can end up any other way. It has been inevitable since the privatisation. In a competitive worldwide aviation environment it is difficult to see any other outcome.
The actions of the unions seem to be designed to speed up the process. Either by rendering the company unfinancial, or by giving the board (via the CEO) the trigger it requires to expidite the process.
From the actions of the unions, it would seem there is little understanding by them of just how precarious their jobs are.
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