Employee safety and satisfaction - Assignment

Running Head: QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
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1QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Background..................................................................................................................................2
External environment...................................................................................................................3
Stakeholders.................................................................................................................................5
ALAEA....................................................................................................................................5
TWU........................................................................................................................................5
AIPA........................................................................................................................................6
Government.............................................................................................................................6
Solution........................................................................................................................................6
Relevance.....................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

2QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Introduction
Employee safety and satisfaction is considered to be a pivotal part for any company.
Company satisfaction can be met through increase the wages or giving special facilities to the
employees. In fact, it is important for the company to provide a good workplace environment.
However, in course of its market orientation the Qantas Airlines of Australia had faced a series
of strikes and protest from the workers and employees in 2011 (Mules and Hsie 2013). It was
infamously known as the 2011 Qantas industrial dispute. The conflict had been staged between
the Qantas management of Australia and the trade unions. In this context, it can be argued that
enterprising bargaining was the primary cause behind this workplace dispute and the Qantas had
to pay a huge loss due to the occurrence of this dispute (Seufert 2014). Hence, the purpose of this
report is to put focus on the various organisational underpinnings that rendered an impetus for
the conflict. The number of issues and its volume of magnanimity are going to take place in the
discussion. Therefore, the report is outlined in such a manner that can able to highlight the
background and external environment of the dispute. Besides this, the response of the
stakeholders is also come into discussion. In this regards, a pertinent question has been asked
about the way the issue had come into an end and finally the report analysed the efficiency of the
solution in related to the employment relation in Australia.
Discussion
Background
The issue was started in the mid 20011 when Qantas and the trade union of Australia
went into industrial bargaining. The trade union members were demanded an increase in the

3QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
wage and wanted to guarantee their improvements in working condition. In this context, there
were three relevant unions in terms of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association
(ALAEA), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Australian and International Pilots
Association (AIPA). The dispute was taking into action on 29th October, 2011 when Qantas
announced a press release about lock out of the engineers, staffs and pilots (The Sydney Morning
Herald 2011). In its official announcement the spokesperson of the company claimed that Qantas
was unable to continue its business due to over aspiring demands of the trade unions. As a result
of that all the employees started protesting against this drastic decision. In fact, the demand of
the trade unions indirectly helped out the Qantas management to shut down its business instead
of solving the problem (Briskin 2016). In his words, the Chief Executive of Qantas Alan Joyce
deliberately condemned the trade union for their extreme demands. Nevertheless, Qantas
witnessed a financial crisis because of the decision of lock out. Approximately $15 million per
week on loss of revenue with a ban on the airline company staged the way for Qantas to step
back (Shaw, McPhail and Ressia 2018). In this situation the Fair Work Act came into action. As
the Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans prompted to imply a ban on the company the
Australian legislation took part in it and gradually withdrew the suspension over Qantas. The
Court opined that the magnanimity of Qantas business stagnation left a deep impact on the
Australian tourism industry and ordered to set up a discussion session through which Qantas
could sort out its disputes with the trade unions.
External environment
The Qantas lock out in 2011 was considered to be an important event in the history of
business dynamics in Australia. It ushered a new perception of the business activities around the
country. There are some important factors which further contributed to instigate the dispute. It

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can be argued that the legal privileges and the governmental intervention created a complex
situation that went into the side of Qantas and the demand of the trade unions remained vague
and not sorted. However, the governmental intervention was not directly instigated Qantas to
initiate a lock out rather the role of the government came into play after the announcement of
lock out (O'Sullivan 2015). It can also be asserted that the economic dependency of Australian
tourism was seemed to be an impetus for Qantas that helped the company in dealing with the
Fair Work Act of 2009 (O'Neill 2018).
In the economic scenario, the tourism industry of Australia was heavily depended on
Qantas Airlines. It can be asserted that suspension of the company would be developed a grave
impact on the Australian economy. During that time, Australia was going to celebrate the
Melbourne Cup and it was the peak season for the Australian tourism industry and due to
enormous pressure of the visitors, the tourism industry did not want to lose the opportunity to get
benefitted by this high time of their business (ABC News 2011). In the political spectrum, ego
became a determinant factor which perturbed the situation further. The then Prime Minister of
Australia Julia Gillard took it to the next level by claiming that it was a conspiracy conducted by
the opposition leader Tony Abbott in order to destroy the image of Labour party. As per the
statement of Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott, the government should not intervene into this
dispute and the grounding decision of Qantas was unavoidable. On the contrary, PM Gillard
replied that she was proud of the government intervention and stated that the opposition was
going to shake the foundation of Fair Work Act (Franklin and Hannan 2011). In this context, it
can be understood that the Fair Work Act was a replacement of the previous law of Work
Choices formulated by the erstwhile Howard government.

5QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
However, it was true that the government interference and the economic status of
Australia at that time hampered the court proceedings and ushered a new paradigm of
government control of all aspects of the country. In fact, in the name of fairness into workplaces
in Australia the government turned Qantas into the driving force and despite of its allegiance to
the Labourers faded away the demand of the workers (Hampson et al. 2014). Furthermore, in the
words of the Victorian government it was cleared that due to the government interference in Fair
Work Act proceedings the dispute became intensified and in return it left a severe impact on the
economy of Australia.
Stakeholders
ALAEA
In case of Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, the demand was based on
job insecurity. The trade union organisation ALAEA demanded for the job protection. In this
regards, the Qantas Airlines was tried to control and restrict the third party labour providers.
Moreover, Qantas had followed a policy of technological improvements that would insecure the
job of the existing engineers of Qantas. Hence, the ALAEA played a pivotal role to influence the
policy of Qantas in order to safeguard jobs for the engineers working in Qantas (Seufert 2014).
TWU
TWU is identified as the Transport Workers Union which is dedicated to protect the
interests of the labourers in the business industry. It can be argued that the dispute had been
emerged as a result of the demand of TWU to increase the wage of the workers. According to the
Chief Executive of Qantas, the demand of the Transport Workers Union was so drastic and
rigorous that it was creating problem for the Qantas to operate its organisational management.

6QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Therefore, the Qantas authority took the decision of shutting down the business activities
domestically and globally (Hamberger 2015).
AIPA
In case of the Australian and International Pilots Union (AIPA) job security was
considered to be the primary demand which was attached with the hike in wage. In this context,
the practice of terms of conditions for giving jobs to the applicants the Qantas management
failed to implement a transparent measure. It did not go with the interest of AIPA who were
liable to protect the interests of the Australian pilots (Creedy 2011).
Government
Government was also identified as an important stakeholder in this dispute. In fact, with
the intervention of the government, the situation was escalated in a rapid pace and went against
the interests and demands of the Trade Unions of Australia. The support given by the
government helped Qantas Airlines a lot and the by utilising the moral support of the
government, Qantas was able to exploit its employees. Furthermore, it can also be articulated
that the grounding of Qantas was detrimental for the Australian economy according to the
government. As the government opined that the lock out could damage the tourism industry of
Australia intensely and the government would never entertained such malpractice (O'Neill 2018).
Solution
The dispute was so emphatic for the economic stability of Australia that it forced the
Federal Minister to intervene into this. Fair Work Act of Australia played an important role in
this case and tried to resolve the situation through a better outcome. The FWA addressed the
matter before a Full Bench. The respective state governments, that is, the Victorian, New South

7QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Wales and the Queensland; the four respondents in terms of Qantas Airlines and the three unions
and also the Federal Minister, were all the participants in the court proceeding. On behalf of the
Australian government, Mike Mrdak, secretary of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport
and Drew Clarke, secretary of Resources, Energy and Tourism Department were the key figures
in that proceeding (Creedy 2011). With regards to the submission of each responder the FWA
started an investigation. Based on the findings, the Full Bench had advocated its decision by
stating that the step taken by the trade unions to protest for their demands was not right and it
was damaging the aviation and tourism industry of Australia. On the part of the Qantas, the
decision of lock out was also considered to be an essential factor for hampering the business
activities of Australian tourism and aviation industry. In response to this, the FWA Full Bench
was coming to the conclusion of terminating or suspending the grounding decision of Qantas
under Section 424 (1) (d) (O'Neill 2018). As a result of the Full Bench verdict, Qantas and
ALAEA were going to make a settlement. In case of the TWU and AIPA the arbitration was still
on the verge of confusion which ended in April 2012 through a negotiation. The culmination of
the agreement between Qantas and the three trade unions was not at all satisfying the interests of
the workers and it can be ascribed that the Fair Work Act was failed to mitigate the dispute
(Stewart 2013).
Relevance
There are a number of outcomes emerged from the drastic decision of Fair Work Act.
First of all, the Full Bench verdict disappointed the trade unions intensely and the trust and
beliefs upon FWA became shattered. It can also be argued that the government intervention in
the dispute made the authority more fragile and ineffective in combating crisis (Skinner and
Pocock 2014).

8QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Secondly, the verdict of FWA did not result in favour of the ALAEA. The ALAEA did not get
the bargaining demands and the agreement with Qantas seemed irrelevant and replicated the
previous Qantas-ALAEA agreement (The Sydney Morning Herald 2011).
Thirdly, the settlement between Qantas and TWU and AIPA was not adequate enough to resolve
the dispute. In fact, the AIPA had appealed against the FWA decision and claimed that the
Qantas’ lockout was not giving any advantage to the rights of the workers and FWA would take
a firm step in order to prohibit such kind of tendency (Forsyth 2015).
Moreover, the Qantas dispute of 2011 encouraged other companies to walk through the
same path. In case of Schweppes Australia, the company followed the same line of Qantas by
claiming that it sought a lockout on the ground of shift patterns (ABC News 2011).
Conclusion
It can be argued that the dispute reflected a scenario of the employment relations in
Australia. In fact, the event opened up some key concepts in terms of enterprise bargaining, role
of government in industrial disputes, the effectiveness of FWA in solving industrial disputes and
the role of enterprises in fulfilling the interests of the employees. In the conjecture of the
employee safety, the inefficiency of the government and giving support in favour of the
companies instead of the workers proved the inhospitable environment for working in Australia.
However, the Gillard government appointed a review panel to analyze the operation of Fair
Work Act. Therefore, it can be concluded that there can be a government intervention but it has
to be neutral and should have a impartial organ to investigate the disputes. It will be beneficial
for business as well as good for the economy of Australia.

9QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Reference
ABC News 2011. What is the Qantas dispute all about?. [online] Available at:
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Which Way Forward. Deakin L. Rev., 18, p.67.
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[online] Available at: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/qantas-grounds-all-
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Business Law Review, 43(2), pp.121-137.
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10QANTAS DISPUTE OF 2011 AND ITS IMPACT
Mules, R. and HSIE, H.T., 2013. Workplace Disputes: The Qantas Disputes And The
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