The current Qantas Board and CEO appear determined to turn the company into an offshore enterprise. This is contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the legislation.

From the Qantas Sale Act, the following must be included in the Articles of Association of Qantas:
<blockquote>"(e) prohibit Qantas from taking any action to bring about a change of its company name to a name that does not include the expression "Qantas"; and

(f) prohibit Qantas from conducting scheduled international air transport passenger services under a name other than:

(i) its company name; or

(ii) a registered business name that includes the expression "Qantas"; and

(g) require that the head office of Qantas always be located in Australia; and

(h) require that of the facilities, taken in aggregate, which are used by Qantas in the provision of scheduled international air transport services (for example, facilities for the maintenance and housing of aircraft, catering, flight operations, training and administration), the facilities located in Australia, when compared with those located in any other country, must represent the principal operational centre for Qantas; and

(i) require that, at all times, at least two-thirds of the directors of Qantas are to be Australian citizens; and

(j) require that, at a meeting of the board of directors of Qantas , the director presiding at the meeting (however described) must be an Australian citizen; and

(k) prohibit Qantas , at all times, from taking any action to become incorporated outside Australia."</blockquote>

Where does this sit with reference to plans to move lock, stock and barrel to an Asian centred operation, paying Asian money and thumbing the corporate nose at Australian IR laws and practices?

No wonder the Australian employees are not happy - they are entitled to expectations of a future which is in line with the Qantas Sale Act.

Abbot's only "strategy" is the same as any other Liberal or Labor leader- whinge about the other party's policies (or lack thereof) and try to stall any attempts to fix a problem; until they get into government and do the exact same thing the other party would have done anyway.

As always, the devil in all this is in the details.

According to Paul Sheehan, Tony Sheldon was one of the architects
of the "bleed Qantas slowly" strategy. All the aces were in the
unions pockets, Qantas was losing 15 million$ a week at no cost
to employees. No CEO worth his salt, can tolerate that kind of
situation.

The FWA is great at protecting workers, not so good at protecting
shareholders. 9 of the 11 FWA commissionars are seemingly ex union
officials.

Qantas needed certainty, an end to the bleeding, or the whole
company could have gone down eventually.

As it was, it took FWA over a day of discussions to agree that
a termination of industrial activity was warranted, rather then
more bleeding down the track, as the unions were pushing for.

So Joyce and the board had little option but to do what they did,
with such cards stacked against them.

The more worrying aspect to me is that a bloke like Sheldon
could land up heading the ALP.

The commentators on OLO seem to have forgotten that although the Labor Party had a policy before the election, they failed to stick with it anyway, so we now have a Carbon Tax.

I agree with posts that make the point that this is an inevitable product of globalised business. Lower cost base is common sense for a business run for profit. Alan Joyce has not been hiding his intentions, it just seems people only hear/believe what they want to hear/believe.

Try here for direct word from the CEO back in August: http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110816/pdf/420dw1q15pxl58.pdf

Then read the FWA decision: http://www.fwa.gov.au/decisionssigned/html/2011fwafb7444.htm

Clearly this has been brewing for some time. Joyce's plan is for limited compulsory redundancies so many currently disaffected workers will probably get a chance to opt out for a reasonable sum OR re-locate to work for Qantas at one of its hubs.

20% higher cost base means business slowly going broke. Better to have a business that grows in the global environment than lose the business altogether.

Yes, more upheaval to come but would people rather not buy stuff on-line from OS or have the flexibility to shop around? That micro-reality will drive the macro one.

TBC writes

'QANTAS deserves to die, hopeless service, terrible cabin staff, high prices and a greedy board.'

Thats funny. I have flown with Qantas for 30 years only to find the service excellent, the staff good and the prices reasonable. They do however push the left agenda a bit to much which I thought TBC would like. Look through their programs and you find the 'gay'agenda', the gw propaganda and an over elevation of the arts.