Australian Greens MP Adam Bandt says the industrial relations laws must be changed to include clauses on job security, after Qantas announced job cuts.
Qantas chief Alan Joyce on Thursday said 500 positions would go due to changes in the airline's engineering and catering services, as it tries to adjust to tough market conditions.
Pointing to the carrier's decision last year to ground its planes due to industrial action, the Greens industry and employment spokesman likened its actions to an "industrial atomic bomb".
"There is something wrong with a Fair Work Act when an employer like Qantas is able to use extreme industrial tactics and profit from it," Mr Bandt told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"The Fair Work Act needs to be fixed to prevent a recurrence of this kind of situation."
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Mr Bandt plans to introduce a bill to "put job security at the heart of the Fair Work Act and prevent employers from using Qantas-style lockouts as an industrial tactic".
Last November, Fair Work Australia was forced to intervene in the industrial dispute between Qantas and several unions after the airline grounded its fleet for two days.
Mr Bandt said Qantas' responsibility was to Australia.
"It is our national airline, it receives significant government support, there is legislation overseeing it," Mr Bandt said.
"It is required to be an Australian airline and it should have the interest of the country first and foremost."
Mr Bandt said he would introduce his Fair Work Amendment (Job Security and Fairer Bargaining) bill into parliament on February 27.
