AUSTRALIAN AIRLINE Qantas plans to resume flights as early as this afternoon after a labour regulator blocked stoppages that had prompted Australia’s biggest carrier to ground its fleet, stranding about 80,000 passengers.
Fair Work Australia made the order at about 2am in Melbourne, following more than 12 hours of hearings spread over two days.
The ruling, which paves the way for binding arbitration, was opposed by unions who were instead seeking a temporary halt.
“This decision provides certainty for Qantas passengers,” Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said in a statement, adding the airline might initially run a limited schedule. “We will be getting our aircraft back up in the air as soon as we possibly can.”
Irish-born Mr Joyce grounded the Sydney-based carrier’s main unit with no notice on Saturday after weeks of sporadic strikes disrupted flights. The strike action had been taken by pilots and engineers; and baggage, ground and catering staff.
“They are trashing our strategy and our brand,” said Mr Joyce. “They are deliberately destabilising the company and there is no end in sight.“
The unprecedented move to ground the fleet was greeted with disbelief by the Australian and International Pilots Association.
“No one predicted this, because no one thought Alan Joyce was completely mad. This is a stunning overreaction. It is straight-up blackmail,” said association vice-president Richard Woodward.
Australian prime minister Julia Gillard said last night she was concerned about damage to the national economy: “The government in this matter is seeking to bring industrial action to an end and to have the dispute resolved, so that we can proceed with certainty with our iconic airline Qantas, proceeding properly and with the circumstances where employees and Qantas know what the future holds for them.”
Ms Gillard was speaking in Perth, where she had been attending a meeting of heads of government from British Commonwealth countries. Many leaders have been left stranded in Perth due to the Qantas grounding.
The Trinity-educated Mr Joyce, who worked with Aer Lingus until 1996, has been subjected to death threats in recent weeks as the industrial dispute escalated.
Union anger was heightened last Friday as shareholders at Qantas’s agm voted to approve a two million Australia dollar (€1.51 million) bonus for him. “Here is a man who has got $3 million a year and he has walked into his board and said ‘it’s not enough. I can’t live off $3 million, I need a $2 million pay rise’,” said Steve Purvinas, head of the Licenced Aircraft Engineers’ Association.
Mr Joyce told ABC radio that unions had threatened to escalate their industrial action. “Unfortunately after the agm the unions were more aggressive. They were talking about 48-hour stoppages, ramping it up, baking us for a year,” he said. “I told the board I had made the decision then. We were losing, lost $70 million to date, $15 million a week, and felt that we had no other [option].”
Hundreds of Irish people were expected to fly from other parts of Australia to Melbourne tomorrow for the Melbourne Cup horse race. There are seven Irish horses running in this year’s event.
The cup is so widely watched on television, it is famously known as “the race that stops a nation”. Qantas is now being referred to as “the airline that stops a nation”. (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)
Sports Monday: page 6