We have met with Jetstar about airline restructuring

Following announcements made by Alan Joyce to the media about restructuring the group airlines, USU/ASU delegates and organisers met with Jetstar management on 1 July 2020 to get an initial briefing about the impacts to management teams at airports, as well as JOCC and Operational Corporate Support and Commercial Corporate Support.

Jetstar management briefed the USU/ASU on the proposed reduced head counts, as follows:

1. Airports management teams – 16 Airports Services and 5 Head Office based Airports roles. Whilst the management teams are impacted, the effect of reducing positions may flow to EBA covered employees. We have sought more information from Jetstar about handling the residual work and mitigating the impact to EBA covered employees.
2. JOCC and Operational Corporate Support – 180 in Engineering, Customer Experience and Tech Crew, related primarily to base closures in Newcastle and Perth. Of these roles we have sought more information on a total of 11 EBA covered roles.
3. Commercial Corporate Support – 190 in Operations, Corporate and Support roles across Commercial and Operations, which are predominantly professional salaried and managerial positions.

Jetstar have completed initial discussions with the impacted staff. We will continue to consult with Jetstar about mitigating the impact to EBA staff and keep you informed every step of the way. Our next meeting is on Thursday, 9 July 2020.

Ongoing arrangements for rostering

It might not be possible for airlines to return to pre-COVID flying schedules for some time. We have heard from members that the current rostering arrangements Qantas Group have in place are not working. We are discussing how the airline re-engages staff and trying to reach agreement on fairly and equitably distributing the work as the business recovers from the pandemic.

We need JobKeeper to continue

We have been campaigning to put pressure on the federal government to come clean with their plans. The Government is only adding to the uncertainty by not extending the program.

The JobKeeper scheme needs to remain ongoing for the aviation industry.

The ASU and TWU have placed full page advertisements in The Australian and the Australian Financial Review calling on the government to announce a package for aviation that includes continuing JobKeeper.

We have also written to Scott Morrison along with a number of other aviation unions and aviation companies asking for this support.

We have also asked the Qantas Group to support the campaign but they have not replied. This is so very disappointing. We all need to work together to make sure the aviation industry in Australia is as strong as it can be.

For more information on our campaign – check out www.aviationkeeper.com — sign our petition, ring or email your local member of parliament and share our recent opinion piece from the Daily Telegraph and the Courier Mail. Aviation is important to Australia we deserve the government’s continued support.

 ASU branch organisers: