Qantas likely to offshore 10,000 jobs despite safety concerns

Qantas could offshore as many as 10,000 jobs, including maintenance staff, despite fresh safety concerns.

Tormented Qantas boss Alan Joyce has said that he cannot rule out anything regarding the number of jobs the company can offshore arguing that Qantas, like its rival Virgin, should have no limit on how many jobs it can offshore.

According to News.com.au, Joyce has said that the company, for the future, needs the same flexibility their competitor has, so if their competitor has the ability to do all of its heavy maintenance, including its call centres and everything, offshore then Qantas needs the same freedom to compete on a 'level playing field'.

The Assistant National Secretary of the Australian Services Union, Linda White, reportedly warned this week that 10,000 jobs, 1 in 3 at Qantas, could potentially be based offshore with staff at check-in desks likely to remain Australian, but call centre and freight staff likely be offshored.

However, a submission to the inquiry by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association has reportedly raised a series of safety concerns about the standard of work in international maintenance facilities.