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The Australian Services Union (ASU) has come out swinging at Qantas’ plan to outsource around 850 head-office jobs to Accenture.
In a fiery statement, the union demanded Qantas “keep its commitment” over assurances it said employees had received in August that there were “no plan to offshore any Australian jobs”, and said workers “deserved an honest explanation of what had changed since then”.
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It comes after the Flying Kangaroo confirmed the outsourcing on Tuesday, with work likely to go to Accenture’s offices in India, and AI to potentially play a role.
“The ASU is calling on Qantas to provide more details on how many roles, and which roles will be cut, and how many will remain in Australia; a concrete retraining plan so experienced staff can move into other roles within the company; redundancy packages that recognise workers’ years of services for those who are laid off; and consultation with workers and the ASU before individual outcomes are decided,” the union said.
ASU assistant national secretary Scott Cowen said Qantas “has a documented history of outsourcing and offshoring jobs, even being fined for illegally doing so in the past”.
“Earlier this year, Qantas told us directly there was no plan to offshore any jobs. Today, they’ve come out and told hundreds of staff members that their work will now be delivered mostly from people overseas. Qantas staff have the right to an explanation,” he said.
“AI is having a huge impact on workers across the country, but the cost of technology change should not be borne by the workers who have kept the airline running for years. Sending more jobs overseas is not in the spirit of Australia.
“Our priority is keeping as many of these jobs as possible in Australia and ensuring that every affected worker has a real choice about their future at the airline.”
A Qantas spokesperson told Australian Aviation the airline had “never given assurances to the union that some jobs wouldn’t move offshore”.
“We have met with the union on a number of occasions over the last few months to discuss the potential for some roles to move to Accenture, with work to be delivered by their teams in India and in Australia, as part of ongoing discussions on how AI will change the shape of our workforce in the future. We continue to consult with them on the impacts announced today,” the spokesperson said.
“There will be no changes in place until middle of next year, and our focus is on redeployment opportunities through the creation of new roles in Australia as well as investments in reskilling programs and support for our impacted teams.”
Qantas had in February denied head office jobs would be replaced with AI, even as the carrier looked to increase its use of the technology.
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