Bain Capital must honour its promises to Virgin workers

The Australian Services Union has called on Bain Capital to confirm it is not seeking to turn Virgin Airlines into a low-cost carrier and to honour its promises to Virgin workers after long standing CEO Paul Scurrah was moved aside today.

Australian Services Union Assistant National Secretary Emeline Gaske said she was deeply concerned that Bain were reneging on their commitment to keep Virgin a full-service airline.

“The assurance given to 6,000 Virgin employees that their jobs would be safe, was based on commitments made by Bain during the sale process to remain a full-service airline.

“If Bain starts to unwind these commitments and move towards a model of a low-cost carrier, this raises very significant concerns about job security for Virgin workers.

“We are seeking an urgent meeting with Bain Capital to discuss their plans for the airline after the explosive news about the Virgin CEO.

“Bain has an obligation to be honest with Virgin employees about their plans.

“Between COVID, stand-downs, redundancies and management pushing cuts to pay and conditions, they’ve been through absolute hell these last seven months. It is unacceptable that on top of this Bain is trying to cut workers conditions down to the bone.”

 “During the sale process, Bain made significant commitments to employees and company creditors and any departure from this would be a massive breach of trust by the new owners.

“We call on Bain Capital to honour their commitments to Virgin employees for a full service airline and to continue negotiations with unions in good faith.”

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