Virgin on the hunt for unhappy airline staff from QF etc

[markis10]

Personally I think its great:

http://resources.news.com.au/files/2011/08/18/1226117/652838-virgin-australia-email.pdf

VIRGIN Australia is in secret talks with aviation unions to rescue 1000 workers Qantas is planning to sack. Confidential correspondence reveals Virgin is also seeking to usurp Qantas's patriotic branding as the "Spirit of Australia".
Virgin Group executive Richard Tanner even said the airline was prepared to deal directly with its rival to take the workers off its hands.
"We are keen to ensure that as many as possible of the highly skilled staff being displaced by Qantas are provided the opportunity to be considered for suitable roles at our airline," Mr Tanner said in the correspondence.
"We are willing to liaise directly with Qantas and the aviation unions to help as many of the redundant Qantas staff as possible."

Read more: Secret union talks reveal Virgin preparing to hire Qantas rejects | News.com.au
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[awilcockson]

Hope they don't just end up with the angry, grumpy ones ...

 

[oz_mark]

Err, I believe Qantas is going to offer Voluntary Redundancies in the first instance, not 'sack' them. Of course, if there is somewhere for them to go, it makes the decesion to accept a redundancy easier!

 

[markis10]

Err, I believe Qantas is going to offer Voluntary Redundancies in the first instance, not 'sack' them. Of course, if there is somewhere for them to go, it makes the decesion to accept a redundancy easier!

No, AJ actually mentioned the other day the was an expected need for sacking as part of the announcement, so its a realistic prospect.The VRs have already been offered.

 

[serfty]

Of course, those who do take up such an offer will need to get used to being paid less as well as having less advantageous employment structures than they did working for QF legacy ...

 

[awilcockson]

Of course, I hope they get used to being paid less than they did working for QF legacy ...

Getting paid less than what you're on now is still better than getting made redundant and getting paid nothing!

 

[serfty]

Getting paid less than what you're on now is still better than getting made redundant and getting paid nothing!

That's true - are Virgin Australia planning on expanding for this to be significant?

In any case; it would be remiss of any airline not to explore the possibility of recruiting people with experience made so redundant.

 

[Mal]

I still encounter ex-Ansett staff on QF flights. I tend to spot them due to meeting one of two categories:
- I have a chip on my shoulder ...
or - I am very good at what I do and here's how I prove it...

Sounds like a stunt from VA, but good luck to them. Experienced FAs bring both good and bad to an airline. Hopefully they can weed out the bad ones.

 

[777]

There is one area where virgin are expanding and QF are laying off and that's with VA building a new hangar and heavy maintenance facility in SYD which will need staff. I cant imagine they are putting on a lot of new pilots or cabin crew soon beyond the usual rotation but they are bringing more engineering onshore soon.

 

[Justchecking]

I think they are targeting engineers and possibly pilots. I doubt cabin crew, there is no shortage of experienced cabin crew ex-ME at virgin. I also doubt any A scales hosties would bother starting over at a fraction of their previous pay. Retirement or something else will look more attractive. Those kinds of pay and conditions dont exist for new entrants these days.