Qantas petition former staff to return to the cabins

Qantas has made a public call to previous employees in a bid to bolster their staff as the airline returns to profit and aims turn to growth.

The national carrier is looking for staff who took voluntary redundancy packages or resigned at least two years ago to apply for new jobs. The news stems from a release by the airline which was posted in the Flight Attendant’s Association of Australia private Facebook group and mentioned in Ben Fordham’s 2GB radio show.

“As an experienced former cabin crew member, we are reaching out to see if you are interested in being part of Qantas’ next chapter,” the note said.

“As one of our cabin crew members who made an incredibly difficult decision to leave Qantas during the pandemic – we want to provide an update on how our recovery is going and the very different circumstances we’re operating in today.

“To support our future growth, we are recruiting and training more cabin crew than ever, with more than 1500 crew expected to join us by the end of 2023.

“There are 12-month contracts and permanent ongoing positions available.”

TWU media release: https://t.co/hLBysadrkJ
— TWU Australia (@TWUAus) February 14, 2023

Qantas’ call to their former staff comes in the same week as a scathing release from the Transport Workers Union (TWU) that sheds light on leaked emails the TWU said prove the airline used the “cover of COVID” to clean out staff members on union agreements with high pay and conditions and fill the roles with lower paid, outsourced workers.

Qantas recently had a partial victory, winning the chance for an appeal of findings that the airline did in fact outsource almost 2000 staff. The High Court determining, “it was in the public interest to determine once and for all whether Qantas outsourcing – which has been found to be the largest case of illegal sackings in Australia – was in breach of the Fair Work Act.”

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said Qantas management has behaved horribly and predictably.

“The deliberate tactic has resulted in mass job losses, airport chaos and a significant reduction in pay, conditions and job security across aviation.”

“This proves without a doubt that Qantas management had a premeditated plan throughout the pandemic to clear out workers who had spent years building up good, secure jobs, to replace them with lower-paying, insecure work.

“This all took place while Qantas was receiving $2 billion in unconditional corporate welfare from the Morrison Government, including more JobKeeper than any other company to keep workers engaged with their employer.”

Qantas are only calling back staff who left the company over two year ago, meaning staff that left the company in this controversial COVID period are not receiving the same open armed welcome as those who left the business prior.

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JobKeeper Michael Kaine qantas Transport Workers Union