Qantas Cuts Jobs

Qantas has announced that it is calling for voluntary redundancies that cover its check-in staff and other ground personnel at the international terminal of Sydney airport.

The job cuts were a result of Qantas losing a multi-million dollar deal with Air New Zealand.

Qantas said its management would meet and discuss the issues with the Australian Services Union, the representative of Qantas’ customer-service staff. The meeting is likely to happen today and main agenda would be the job loss.

As of the moment, the two parties are in agreement that there would no compulsory redundancies.

Qantas has long been the provider of ground-handling services for Air New Zealand. Ground-handling services cover the different airports in Australia like Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane. The long-term contract will end this March and Qantas failed to secure the renewal.

Toll Dnata won the contract last November. Qantas has some 700 staff in customer service.

Linda White, the assistant national secretary of ASU, said staff in the international terminal of Sydney Airport is likely to be affected while Qantas may redeploy other staff to different roles in other Australian airports.

White said Sydney Airport is most affected because it also has the most number of Air New Zealand flights.