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TWU (VIC/TAS BRANCH) Secretary John Berger has told distressed membersthat the union will fight tooth-and-nail for their jobs after Alpha FlightServices told staff this week that it will be ruthlessly sacking hundreds of full-timeworkers - a quarter of its entire workforce - in coming weeks.
The union is further outraged that the company (owned by global airservices giant dnata catering which was founded in Dubai and part of theEmirates Group) attempted to intimidate workers in announcing that full-timestaff will be the first to be made redundant but casuals retained.
News of the sackings sadly coincides with airport employees holding a National Day of Action (NDA) at allmajor airports today over casualization of the aviation industry and a FederalCourt case opening on bringing in split shifts and poverty conditions for allaviation staff.
Mr Berger will discuss the Alpha redundancies with media at Melbourne’s NDA protest to be held from 1pm at Tullamarine Airport, Qantasdomestic departures.
Dnata, an in-flight catering and retail services company, blamed theredundancies on its unsuccessful bid to retain the nationwide Virgin Australiacatering services contract.
Mr Berger said there was no justification for full-time workers to bemade redundant – some of whom have been with the company for many years – whencasuals will be retained to do the same work.
The company will also continue to use its labour hire resources.
The TWU will hold a national meeting next week to formulate an actionplan and to demand answers from the company as to why full-time workers willbear the brunt.
It will be particularly drilling into why the company cannot retainfull-time workers and call on its casual labour hire resources when needed.
The company currently employees over 400 people on a full-time basis andover 100 casual staff in Melbourne alone and about 1600 nationally.
Protesters today at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth arecalling on airports, airlines and Governments to end the race to the bottom inaviation and ensure quality jobs.
Today's court case is being taken by Aerocare, which is at the centre ofa scandal involving below poverty rates and staff sleeping at airports. But thecase will have implications for all aviation employees and workers in otherindustries including nurses, aged care workers, electricians and shop workers.
Airport employees on split shifts are forced to stay at work for 15hours and more while being paid for as little as six hours. Australia’s fourmajor airports – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – reported arecord-breaking $1.8bn profit according to Australian Competition and ConsumerCommission’s annual Airport Monitoring Report.
Working conditions and deliberate understaffing at airports areimpacting on safety and security.
The Fair Work Commission last year rejected Aerocare’s new enterpriseagreement, which again contains below award rates and illegal split shifts. ---
