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Video: Intimidation claims as Qantas pay dispute turns ugly
(ABC News)
Photo:
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is allegedly the target of a threatening letter. (Dean Lewins: AAP)
A union chief says he would not put it past Qantas to fabricate a threatening letter addressed to the airline’s chief executive, Alan Joyce.
This morning Mr Joyce said he had received a letter threatening violence, which he said he had made public in order to highlight a number of threats made against Qantas employees.
The airline says three other employees have also been intimidated and one has had a car damaged.
Unions, which are in a long-running industrial dispute with Qantas, have denied being involved.
“What was the spur on this [announcement] was the fact that we had other employees around the company being intimidated and bullied and, as I said, their property attacked, and I just felt that this just got to a level that was unacceptable,” Mr Joyce said.
But Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas says he finds the timing of Mr Joyce’s comments odd.
“What I did also hear yesterday was that a message got posted to all staff members saying that intimidation and bullying is not the way that things should be, and the whole episode looks a little bit fishy to me,” he said.
“I mean, here we’ve got Qantas [which] has put out a message to their staff – no intimidation and bullying – and the next day splashed all over the newspapers is Alan Joyce saying he’s received these death threats at home and it’s in the hands of police.
“We wouldn’t put it past the airline to have fabricated this to try and draw on some public sympathy.”
Mr Purvinas says the incident comes at a low point for goodwill in the ongoing industrial dispute.
Audio:
Police investigate intimidation in Qantas dispute
(The World Today)
“I don’t think there’s much good faith at the bargaining table as it is today, in fact, we’re on the way to Fair Work Australia now seeking orders against Qantas to start acting in good faith, because they’ve been revealing the contents of private discussions that we say are not in the course of negotiations right or legal,” he said.
But Mr Joyce has defended his decision to go public.
“For me what’s important is that we have to stop the intimidation and the bullying that’s taking place in the workplace,” he told AM.
“Very clearly, as a consequence of the industrial action that’s been taken, we’ve had a number of management and other employees that have experienced destruction to their property, have experienced threats, have experienced letters at home.
“I find it deplorable and wanted to communicate to all 35,000 employees that that was unacceptable. That was something the company would not tolerate.”
Police in New South Wales have confirmed they are investigating an incident on September 27 where a Qantas employee received a threatening letter and several phone calls to their home which hung up.
Police are also attempting to confirm alleged reports made to company security officers of malicious damage to vehicles in a car park.
‘Spin attack’
Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon has condemned the allegations of intimidation, but says police should be allowed to investigate without Mr Joyce going to the media.
“This is the galling spin attack by the company,” he said.
“They’ve made no communications formally in writing to the union.
“Many of their own employees have not heard about these allegations. These emails have been received by very few of their employees to date and they read about it in an exclusive spin attack by Qantas on its own workforce this morning.
“That is offensive, it’s inappropriate and it really does raise the question about how serious are these allegations they’re making.”
Topics:
air-transport,
industry,
business-economics-and-finance,
industrial-relations,
unions,
crime,
law-crime-and-justice,
australia
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