Qantas has rejected a fresh job security request from the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA), amid ongoing pilot concerns about the airline’s willingness to move jobs offshore and threats of renewed strike action.
“In case you were in any remaining doubt, the company regards your claim currently entitled Operation and Extension of Employment Contract, which you colloquially refer to as your job security claim, as damaging to the interests of Qantas as a threat to the real, long-term job security of 35,000 employees in the Qantas Group,” Qantas chief pilot Captain Peter Wilson said in a response to the union claims, as reported by The Australian.
Qantas has maintained that the AIPA’s push for equal wages and conditions for overseas-based pilots flying Qantas-branded aircraft would cripple the airline, which is already running at a significant loss on its international flights. Wilson also warned of widespread job losses to Qantas’s domestic and international operations, with the airline potentially forced to pull out of trans-Tasman routes altogether if AIPA’s demands were met.
Though AIPA had originally given Qantas until today to meet its demands, after issuing them on May 12, the standoff now means that AIPA will move forward with plans to ballot its members to take protected industrial action.
