Qantas believes a maintenance restructure has averted any threat of industrial action in the lead-up to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Qantas announced it would cut 480 jobs with the closure of the Sydney B747 maintenance operations in May. Staff redeployment could reduce the number of job losses to about 340 if workers transferred from Sydney.
Unions were concerned Qantas would send 2,500 maintenance jobs offshore to China, and threatened industrial action which could have affected next week's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Union bosses have welcomed the decision not to export maintenance jobs overseas, but say industrial action is still possible.
Australian Workers' Union secretary Bill Shorten warned earlier that Qantas was in "for the fight of their lives" if they had any intention of sending jobs offshore.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley also said it was critical that the jobs remained in Australia.
"It is absolutely critical that that work continues to be done here and it's very important that the Commonwealth Games goes ahead without disruption,'' he said.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he accepted the reasons for the job cuts in Sydney, but insisted the decision was not an indication of a weak NSW economy.
"We're obviously disappointed that Qantas has made that decision,'' he said.
"But they've made it for operational reasons. It's in no way a reflection . . . (or) any indication of the NSW economy."
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Doug Cameron said his members would be saddened by the loss of 480 Sydney-based maintenance jobs.
''(Almost) 500 jobs would be lost, 500 families will have their lives totally disrupted,'' Mr Cameron told reporters after meeting Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon at Sydney airport today.
"We welcome the decision of Qantas not to send any jobs overseas but we are very concerned that a decision has been made to let 500 jobs be lost.
"But if we believe safety is compromised at Qantas because of these jobs cuts, if we believe the quality of maintenance is being compromised, then we will go to the public . . . and we will be saying to the public we must take action to ensure your safety,'' Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron also called on Mr Dixon to sacrifice some of his salary of around $6 million to save some jobs.
"How about Geoff Dixon make a voluntary contribution to cut his salary back, as other chief executives have done around the world and keep some of these workers in a job,'' Mr Cameron said.
Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon told reporters he did not anticipate industrial action and described the tone of today's meetings as ``very co-operative and very sensible''.
He said maintenance jobs would remain in Australia pending in depth reviews in 2007 and 2008 but that if the company did not meet the required target, it would look at other alternatives and the airline has not discounted the possibility of moving jobs offshore in the future.
The airline expects to generate savings of around $100 million a year from changes to its engineering operations through consolidation, process improvements, and more flexible work rules.
"While moving considerable parts of our business overseas would have provided overall greater savings, the successful restructuring in Australia also had the benefit of significant savings that would make the airline competitive,'' Mr Dixon said.
The union leaders plan to today discuss with delegates a move by Qantas to benchmark the cost of their airline maintenance programs with overseas airlines.
Members would be informed about the issue later in the week, they said.
The unions said they would also discuss what could be done for the 480 workers who are to lose their jobs.
Source: TheAge.com.au
