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The TWU has argued that promoting Virgin’s chief customer officer to become the airline’s new CEO would be “disastrous” for employee morale.
In a significant intervention, the union appeared to link its support for the airline’s deal with Qatar Airways to the possible appointment of Paul Jones, who was previously a Qantas executive involved in the airline’s illegal sacking of ground workers.
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Qatar plans to buy 25 per cent of the Virgin Australia and launch ‘wet lease’ flights to Doha using its own aircraft and crew. The deal has been approved by the ACCC but still needs to be green-lit by the federal government’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine told Australian Aviation that Virgin still has “significant work to do to rebuild workforce morale” after long negotiations with crew over pay and conditions earlier this year, and that Jones, who has reportedly been a favourite to succeed current CEO Jayne Hrdlicka after she announced her shock departure in February, would jeopardise these efforts.
“Clearly in a time of immense uncertainty for Virgin crew around the implications of the wet lease with Qatar, a decision to install Paul Jones of Qantas illegal sackings infamy would be disastrous for morale,” said Kaine.
The TWU has backed the Qatar deal – given interim ACCC approval last week – as being good for Australian job opportunities; however, Kaine told The Australian Financial Review it may revisit its support if Jones is appointed.
“We want to be supportive of the deal and getting Virgin back to long-haul flying, we want to be constructive and work with the airline, but that attitude will change if Bain decides to appoint Paul Jones,” he said.
The TWU had made its concerns about Jones known in a June letter sent to Bain Capital partner Mike Murphy, copied to Hrdlicka.
The union also says it has written to Virgin over concerns about working conditions and human rights in Qatar, including discrimination against female and LGBTQ+ employees; Hrdlicka has said the deal would be good for Australian workers.
“We have to be realistic about the substantial concerns workers and the travelling public have, given Qatar’s track record with human rights and worker abuses,” said Kaine in a statement.
“There need to be appropriate guardrails in place to make sure workers are consulted and protected throughout this process.
“It’s positive that Virgin has met with TWU delegates immediately to talk through these issues in what is an uncertain time for workers. We need to see Virgin make commitments to ensure positive outcomes from these arrangements with Virgin.”
Bain Capital has declined to comment.
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says:I think it fair to say that even if the “almighty” came from QF the T.W.U. would object
Fergus Moffat
says:I think that one of the negative aspects of the small airline market that Australia represents and the consequent mainline duopoly is the consistent incestuous back-and-forth migration of airline executives between Jetstar, Qantas, and Virgin. This feature can’t ultimately be good for we, the long-suffering Self-Loading Freight.