The 2011 Qantas industrial disputes were a series of disputes between the Australian airline

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...

and a number of

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s during much of 2011 and the start of 2012. The disputes commenced in late 2010, when Qantas and unions commenced bargaining for new enterprise agreements. The bargaining became more heated when the airline announced its intentions to launch a new airline in Asia. During the bargaining,

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the ...

, pilots and

baggage handler In the airline industry, a baggage handler is a person who loads and unloads baggage (suitcases or luggage), and other cargo (airfreight, mail, counter-to-counter packages) for transport via aircraft. With most airlines, the formal job title i ...

s carried out a number of protected industrial actions, culminating in the decision by Qantas, on 29 October 2011, to lock out those employees (with the consequence that the entire Qantas mainline fleet would be grounded). After an application by the Federal Minister for Workplace Relations,

Fair Work Australia The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australi ...

terminated the industrial action with effect from 2 am on 31 October 2011.

Background

In mid-2011, Qantas and the

Transport Workers Union of Australia The Transport Workers' Union of Australia (TWU) is a trade union with members throughout Australia. It has 5 main branches based in: Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales; Queensland; Victoria/Tasmania; South Australia/Northern Territory ...

(TWU) went into industrial bargaining, where TWU employees demanded that the airline guarantee further improvements in working conditions and better wages. In the nine months leading up to October, 200 meetings related to industrial bargaining were held. Industrial action by unions caused disruptions and delays to Qantas' flight schedule which cost the airline A$68 million. On 10 July 2011, long-haul pilots who were members of the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) voted to take protected industrial action against the airline, for the first time since 1966. The president of AIPA, Barry M. Jackson, said "The issue that pushed us towards taking protected industrial action is a fundamental one – keeping Qantas pilots operating Qantas flights. We now have a management team in charge who believe you can shift operations to Asia, outsource the jobs of Australian Qantas pilots and not do any damage to the Qantas brand in the process."

Announcement of new strategy

On 16 August 2011, Qantas announced plans to launch a new airline in Asia and move away from the North Atlantic which had been the airline's traditional market. The airline said that it would establish

Jetstar Japan is a Japanese low-cost airline headquartered in Narita, Chiba. Initially planned to commence flights in late 2012, it launched ahead of schedule on 3 July 2012. The airline serves destinations across the Asia-Pacific region, using a fleet of ...

as a low-cost carrier, along with a premium carrier to be based at either

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

. At the same time the airline announced there would be 1000 job losses. These plans are expected to increase the market share of Qantas by making it more competitive.

Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and l ...

secretary Jeff Lawrence described the day as the "darkest" in the airline's history.

Grounding and employee lock-out

At a press conference on 29 October 2011, CEO

Alan Joyce Alan Joyce (born 21 October 1942) is a former Australian rules footballer who after playing 49 games for Hawthorn became a premiership winning coach for the club. Originally from Glen Iris, Joyce played in the ruck for Hawthorn, and ultimate ...

announced the immediate—and unprecedented—grounding of all Australian domestic and international Qantas flights, effective 5pm

AEDT Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...

, as a result of the proposed lock-out of the airline's staff, beginning at 8 pm AEDT on 31 October, in response to continued industrial action against the company. Joyce said that Qantas subsidiaries

Jetstar Airways Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd, operating as Jetstar, is an Australian low-cost airline (self-described as "value-based") headquartered in Melbourne. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by airline Virgin ...

, QantasLink and

Jetconnect Jetconnect Ltd. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas that has its head office in Auckland, New Zealand. Originally established in July 2002 as a New Zealand-based airline, the company has since stopped operating as an airline but continues to ...

would not be affected by the grounding, along with Express Freighters Australia and

Atlas Air Atlas Air, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, is a major American cargo airline, passenger charter airline, and aircraft lessor based in Purchase, New York. Atlas Air is the world's largest operator of the Boei ...

freight aircraft (operating on behalf of

Qantas Freight Qantas Freight is a subsidiary company of Australia's largest airline Qantas, responsible for the air cargo operations of the Qantas group. It is the owner of freight airline Express Freighters Australia, freight forwarder Qantas Courier and tru ...

and Australian air Express). Qantas said it would reimburse accommodation costs for those left stranded by the fleet grounding, and refund those who were expected to fly with the airline.

Impact and response

Following the abrupt announcement of the suspension of operations, all Qantas aircraft already on the ground, regardless of whether they were in maintenance or serviceable, were grounded, and all passengers who had boarded aircraft were instructed to disembark and collect their baggage. Multiple reports suggested that some aircraft turned around during taxiing for take-off. Flights that were in the air at the time of the announcement continued to their next destinations and were then grounded. The lock-out was expected to affect 68,000 to 80,000 passengers in the first day, to result in the cancellation of 600 flights and to cost the airline in excess of $20 million each day. Bookings of 17

Heads of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

were also affected. The grounding was expected to cause disastrous consequences to the

Australian economy Australia is a highly developed country with a mixed-market economy. As of 2022, Australia was the 14th-largest national economy by nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the 20th-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP, and was the 22nd-largest goods ...

Australian Senator The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a ...

Nick Xenophon Nick Xenophon ( Nicholas Xenophou; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian politician and lawyer who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the leader of two political parties: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon ...

criticised the action as "militant management". TWU secretary Tony Sheldon labelled the move by Qantas as "a pre-conceived, pre-planned attempt to hoodwink the shareholders, hoodwink the Australian community. Now it's trying to hoodwink the company's workforce".

Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...

, then Leader of the Opposition, blamed the disputes on the government decision not to intervene, and said that the grounding was avoidable. Then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, Julia Gillard, requested an urgent meeting at a

tribunal: "As a result of the dramatic escalation of that dispute the government has taken a rare decision to make an application to Fair Work Australia to have the industrial action terminated and have Fair Work Australia deal with this dispute". A hearing was held in Melbourne at 10 pm on 29 October. Richard Woodward, vice-president of the AIPA, said, "Alan Joyce is holding a knife to the nation's throat". Despite the barrage of criticism, a newspaper has published claims that the grounding was backed by the flight attendants' union. Qantas' rival airlines responded positively to the fleet grounding.

Virgin Australia Virgin Australia, the trading name of Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd, is an Australian-based airline. It is the largest airline by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. It commenced services on 31 August 2000 as ''Virgin Blue'', with two ...

offered stranded passengers a discount on flight fares. Virgin also announced that it would provide an additional 43,000 seats in the coming weeks to accommodate Qantas passengers.

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacif ...

were sluggish, but after several requests agreed to cover Virgin and Qantas'

trans-Tasman Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...

flights, to free up New Zealand based aircraft and crews for Virgin to use in the Australian domestic market.

AirAsia X AirAsia X (previously known as ''FlyAsianXpress Sdn. Bhd.''), is a long-haul budget airline based in Malaysia, and a sister company of AirAsia. It commenced operations on 2 November 2007 with its first service flown from Kuala Lumpur Internat ...

offered discounted fares for passengers holding a valid Qantas ticket to any AirAsia X destination. According to Qantas, the industrial action by the three labour unions cost the airline A$194 million (US$195 million).

Fair Work Australia orders

In the early hours of 31 October, a Full Bench of Fair Work Australia handed down orders that all industrial action taken by Qantas and the involved trade unions be terminated immediately. The order was requested by the federal government amid fears that an extended period of grounding would do significant damage to the national economy, especially with regards to the tourism and mining sectors. The government elected not to use its powers under Section 431 of the ''Fair Work Act 2009'', which enabled a minister to unilaterally make a declaration to terminate industrial action. On 8 August 2012 Fair Work Australia rejected key Union pay and contract-worker restriction demands. The Unions had flagged the possibility of more disruptions.

References