ASU International and Domestic Freight delegates from all across Australia met with Qantas Freight management in Sydney on 6th May 2015 to discuss the company’s recent announcement that they intend to offshore and outsource the import processing function to India and cross train staff on front counter and other functions.
This meeting followed a teleconference that we participated in on 30th April 2015.
It was great to have your delegates in the same room working as a team.
Time for consultation and proper briefing
Offshoring and outsourcing work is an important issue and our Qantas EBA 10 prescribes a process that Qantas must follow when they propose to do this. Qantas Freight has ignored the process.
Qantas Freight has also ignored the need to properly consult about changes to work and their proposed training programs as they are required to do both under the AaE and Qantas EBAs with the ASU.
Your ASU delegates believe that riding roughshod over staff is not on. We need to understand what plans there are to integrate the operations and how this will be managed. There are 2 different EBAs which although similar have significant differences which need to be managed and everyone needs to understand what is going on.
Qantas Freight have now agreed to halt the proposed engagement of Tata Systems to do the import processing work until we have further more detailed discussions and they have also agreed to halt the training program they proposed until we conclude our consultation and discussions.
What is next?
We have a meeting scheduled for 19th May 2015 in Sydney to talk more about each of these issues to determine the best course of action for ASU members in International and Domestic Freight.
This is a good outcome as it is an acknowledgement that ASU members will hold management to account and be prepared to ensure proper consultation occurs and the deals we make in our EBAs are upheld.
More information
If you want more information about the meeting or what will happen next talk to your local ASU delegate or organiser.
We will report back again after the meeting on 19th May.