Qantas motion moved at Labor conference

15 Jul 2012, 6:01 pm   -   Source: AAP

The Transport Workers Union is moving a NSW Labor conference motion to expand the Qantas Sale Act to include Jetstar.

Qantas would be prevented from exploiting overseas workers at its subsidiary Jetstar under a motion being moved by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) at the NSW Labor conference.

Under the Qantas Sale Act of 1992, the airline is required to have its headquarters in Australia and be majority Australian-owned.

But unions believe Qantas could get around the act by employing more maintenance workers in Asia at its budget carrier Jetstar and other future offshoots.

TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon, a delegate to the NSW Labor conference, is moving a motion on Sunday afternoon, which would call on the act to include Jetstar and any other Qantas subsidiary.

"The proposed legislation would include the entire Qantas group and where it's invested its money," Mr Sheldon told AAP outside Sydney Town Hall.

"Anyone flying in our air space, Qantas or others, should be turning around and paying Australian wages and conditions and providing where it's appropriate Australian jobs."

Mr Sheldon said Qantas needed to be stopped from exploiting workers in Asia.

"We've seen Qantas bring in workers from Thailand and Singapore at $400 a month," he said.

"That is not an appropriate way for an Australian company to operate, let alone any other company."

The left-wing Australian Services Union is understood to be supporting the motion from the right-wing TWU.

A Qantas spokesman said the company rejected Mr Sheldon's claims and that Jetstar paid its employees in Singapore and Thailand more than five times the $400-a-month the union had claimed.

"The Qantas Group, including Jetstar, employs more than 30,000 people in Australia and as a global airline group we also employ people throughout the world," the spokesman said.

"Jetstar operates separate airlines in a number of countries including Singapore, Japan and Vietnam. Just like the airlines we compete against in those countries, Jetstar employs local people on local terms and conditions.

"Jetstar pays these employees significantly more than the average wages in those countries."

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