sheldon sacks nearly a quarter of own staff!, page-5

Bossdog,

I raised the issue I raised as you were the one who bought up the issue of double standards. I merely pointed out that nobody in this whole mess has been more guilty of double standards than Alan Joyce himself and the executive management team.i.e. "You guys take less than 3% wage rise whilst me and the boys take ah let's see, 71% sounds good. I really need that kind of pay rise, last year's 2 and half million was not enough".

Not sure you could restrict your comments re making demands, disrupting business operations and destroying shareholder value to unions or union leaders only. A bit rich I think. In fact, I would say the biggest destroyer of shareholder value has been the management themselves. They are the ones who make decisions, control finances and indeed oversee staff conditions and morale. Without their greedy slash and burn, cut costs at ALL costs attitude, QAN would have a happy and content workforce and things might be a lot different. The unions have endured wage freezes (18 months) and are now struggling to achieve a 3% pay raise (less than the last official yearly inflation rate). All the while, Alan Joyce and the management team believe it is ok to give themselves 71% and 62% pay rises. WHAT PLANET DO YOU COME FROM BOSSDOG?? Here on earth that is called GREED and SELF INDULGENCE, and their actions to restrict staff wages below CPI are the height of hypocrisy. As I said, their mantra is "do as I say, not as I do".

I suppose you also believe that Joyce's comments re no long term damage done to QAN or the brand. After a conservative estimate of $200m wasted on shutting down the airline for a few days, explain that to the shareholders. QAN will never recoup that money and will spend a lot more just trying to woo back people who were once loyal QAN FF.

Think about this, if QAN management were reasonable in their approach and offered say a 4% pay rise, there would be peace and harmony at QAN, productivity would be up and passengers happy. Instead, we have the opposite, at a huge cost. I have sighted Southwest airlines in the USA as a possible business model QAN could follow. The SP speaks for itself Bossdog, and it is ultimately the management who control its destiny. I am not saying Unions are holier than though and all righteous, I just feel that if the whole company was managed in a different light a lot more positives would be possible, including an engaged workforce, not disengaged.

Surfrat.